Industry, handicrafts survey to boost foreign investment
Industry, handicrafts survey to boost foreign investment
The Ministry of Industry and Commerce's Industry and Handicrafts Department hopes that conducting a survey on industry and handicrafts processing factories across the country will help to assess fixed statistics and also serve to attract more foreign investors.
The depa rtment's Director General Mr Manohack Rasachack told Vientiane Times yesterday that the collection of statistics on the exact numbers of industry and handicraft manufacturing factories will enable the government to boost foreign investments in Laos.
“Under the Enhanced Integrated Framework Tier 02 (EIF) project, the implementation of this project is being undertaken in cooperation between the department and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO). It is set to collect the numbers of manufacturing factories and their employees,” Mr Manohack said.
He explained that Lao officials were trained by UNIDO's exports about how to collect the data and conduct a survey on the manufacturing factories in Laos.
“Over th e past year, we also conducted a survey on the particular area but the data of the manufacturing factories and employees is not accurate yet. We hope that this project will help the government to collect an accurate survey of manufacturing statistics countrywide,” he said, adding that it will also be used as a database for forei gn investment.
Mr Manohack added that the practical survey will be conducted nationwide this week after the conclusion of the workshop.
“Each province will have upwards of 10 or 20 officials from our department, the statistics department and provincial authorities,” he said.
Currently, Laos has 35,000 to 36,000 manufacturing factories including 500 large d factories, 600 medium d factories, more than 12,000 small d factories, and more than 20,000 family owned factories, according to the department.
The government is now working on regulating the wood processing factories to ensure they follow the guidelines of the government.
Five provinces have successfully regulated their wood businesses, including Borikhamxay, Khammuan, Savannakhet, Saravan and Xekong.
“According to the plan, we expect to complete the regulation and improvement of the wood processing factories countrywide at the end of this year. Soon, we will go to Champassak and Attapeu provinces to continue the regulation and improvement of the wood processing industry in these provinces,” Mr Manohack added.
However the government recently announced a new ban on the export of various tree species, timber products and ornamental plants but logs and timber must be fully processed and converted into finished products before being exported.
In addition, the cooperation between the relevant ministries, local authorities and wood business sectors will enable the government to maximise the benefits of the nation's natural resources.
