Thailand
CLMV, Japan Discuss Agriculture Export Promotion
(KPL) Representatives of ASEAN member countries of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV) and Japan met in Vientiane Capital to discuss the promotion of the export of made-in-Laos agricultural products.
“The majority, approximately 70%, of Lao people are engaged in agricultural production, so the agricultural development is very important to all people,” Vice Minister of Industry and Commerce Phanthong Phitthoumma told a seminar held in Vientiane on Oct 17.
The workshop was attended by Secretary General of ASENA-Japan Center Mr Masataka Fujita, senior officials from relevant ministries of Lao PDR and secretary generals of CMV national chambers of commerce.
Currently, rice, coffee, maize, cassava, rubber, and banana share the largest portion of Laos’ agricultural export.
Yet the agricultural production in Lao PDR is hampered by several challenges including high production costs, low product quality, lack of production knowhow and modern technology, as well as high transport costs, and limited access to market.
“Agricultural production needs to be concentrated in a particular area rather than done individually by different farmers and we should improve crop seeds, processing techniques, packaging and product certification,” said Mr Phanthong.
The current national socio-economic development plan 2016-2020 states that the national economy must grow by 7.5% to 8% per year with production in the agriculture and forestry required to increase annually by 3.2%, or share 19% of the national GDP by 2020.
Coffee shared 14% of export (US$ 500 million) from Laos to Japan in 2016.
“For Laos as a whole, agriculture is the main exporting industry and the main investment target industry. The agricultural sector accounts for 16 percent of total exports from Laos and ranks among the top three sectors with the amount of US$ 3.1 billion investment from the world,” said Mr Masataka Fujita.
The workshop is part of ASEAN-Japan Centre CLMV Capacity Programme 2017 which is designed to help the CLMV countries to increase their export capacity by strengthening product development, information sharing and technical knowledge building on export business to Japan.
It also aims to address the key issues CLMV are facing by sharing experiences on the successful export cases among the participants.
“We will conduct follow-up activities after this workshop in order for us to be able to create real business for CLMV countries,” said Mr Masataka Fujita.
Source: http://kpl.gov.la/En/Detail.aspx?id=28900