Lao SEZs show continued potential
Lao SEZs show continued potential
Special and specific economic zones (SEZs) in Laos are still attracting foreign investors keen to expand their markets and businesses in the region.
A total of 258 companies and 225 business entrepreneurs have currently registered to invest in the zones according to a meeting held in Khammuan province last week.
Some 44 percent of investment is in the service sector, 31 percent in the industrial sector and the rest in the trading-related sector.
The meeting heard the government received more than US$13 million in royalties from the zones, exports were valued at over US$40 million and the zones had created 15,289 jobs.
The revenue from the zones has contributed to the national budget for development use, which was helping to reduce poverty.
National Assembly members have approved a prime ministerial decree that enables the government to offer significant incentives to potential zone developers.
The government has set up the National Committee for Special and Specific Economic Zone Management to draw up development policy for the zones.
The meeting was chaired by the Head of Secretariat to the Lao National Committee for Special Economic Zone (LNCSEZ) of the Government Office, Ms Bouatha Khattiya, and Khammuan provincial Deputy Governor, Mr Khamsy Outthivong, and attended by district governors and deputy governors, as well as officials from various departments and sectors.
At the meeting, participants also discussed potentially accommodating more enterprises in the zones as well as development plans for the future.
The SEZs are not only attracting the interest of foreign entrepreneurs but also local companies and have become the main driver of growth in the industrial and service sectors, laying the foundation for diversifying the nation's economy into the future.
The development of SEZs is part of the government's policy to boost economic growth and generate job opportunities for loca l people through modernisation and industrialisation.
The government's policy to encourage the industrialisation of Laos' economy is resulting in changes to the country's economic makeup, with the industrial and service sector gradually growing while the agriculture and forestry sector is declining.
Over the past 10 years, SEZs in Laos have been developing continuously, helping to urbanise remote regions of Laos and boosting economic growth while generating job opportunities for local people.
Laos currently has 11 SEZs: the That Luang Marsh specific economic zone in Vientiane, Savan-Seno special economic zone in Savannakhet province, Golden Triangle special economic zone in Bokeo province, Boten Dankham specific economic zone in Luang Namtha province, Long Thanh Golf Course in Vientiane, the Phoukhiew specific economic zone in Khammuan province, and Pakxe-Japan Specific Economic Zone in Champassak province.
