1. Foreign Trade Policy Department, MOIC Program Executive Summary Report
March September 2015
Second Trade Development Facility (TDF2)
Component A – Trade Facilitation, Trade Policy
and Regulations
Presented by Ms. Kingsadone PHETDAOHEUANG
Deputy Director-General
Foreign Trade Policy Department, Ministry of Industry and Commerce
Tel/Fax:
Website:

2. Content General Overview Major Progress and Achievements2
General Overview
Major Progress and Achievements
Trade in Services
Trade in Goods
Key Issues and Recommendations

3. General Overview 3
With TDF 2 fund, a number of activities have been carried out by FTPD during March 2013 – September 2015 to support Lao PDR’s implementation of trade related commitments under the WTO and ASEAN, focusing on Trade in Goods and Trade in Services with the aim to improve the regulatory environment affecting trade.

4. Major Progress and Achievements4
A3. Trade in Services
1. Horizontal assessment
Completed the horizontal regulatory assessment (HRA) in October 2014.
Recommendations divided into High and Medium Priority measures requiring legislative and regulatory changes in order to make laws and regulations compliant with Laos’ commitments under WTO and ASEAN.
However, implementation requires involvement of line Ministries, most of whom may lack the capacity and so requiring technical assistance.
Therefore, FTPD in collaboration with our Trade Advisor are under the process to revise budget/activity plan to accommodate the implementation of recommendations in HRA.

5. Major Progress and Achievements
2. Sectorial assessments
2.1. Telecommunication
Completed the telecommunication regulatory assessment (with sector assessment and the implementation report) in May 2015
There is remarkable progress regarding the establishment of the Independent Regulator. The Decree to establish the Lao National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority drafted by the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication with the assistance of MOIC and the consultants funded by TDF 2, are under the approval process and to later be signed by the Prime Minister.

6. Major Progress and Achievements
In addition, 2 important regulations have been approved by the Minister of Post and Telecommunication in October 2014, and published on the Lao Official Gazette:
The Ministerial Decision on Telecommunication Competition; and
The Ministerial Decision on Telecommunication Numbering Management.
Another 2 regulations are under the drafting process, and expected to be completed after the issuance of the Decree:
The Ministerial Decision on Telecommunication Interconnection; and
The Ministerial Decision on Telecommunication Licensing.

7. Major Progress and Achievements
2.2. Insurance
Organized a workshop on insurance regulatory assessment on 28 May FTPD in collaboration with the consultants are under the finalisation of the report.
It is noted that one of the important findings is that the Department of Finance management of State Enterprises, MOF lacks capacity in both human resources and technological system to supervise the insurance sector. TDF2 budget/activity plan is revised to include activities to enhance the capacity of the Department of Finance management of State Enterprises.
FTPD requests to implement a study mission to Thailand to gain practical experience and perspective on Insurance services supervisory.

8. Major Progress and Achievements
2.3. Mutual Recognition Arrangements (MRAs)
Completed the final sector assessment report in July 2015, the report identified key priority sectors for further institutional and regulatory improvement.
TDF2 budget/activity plan is under the revising process to accommodate the implementation of high priority recommendations from the report.
FTPD requests to implement a study mission to Malaysia to gain practical experience and perspective on Mutual Recognition Arrangement and ASEAN Economic Integration especially on institutional organisation.

9. Major Progress and Achievements
3. Services Trade and Investment Portal
FTPD with the assistance of consultants are under the collection and classification of legislation related to trade in services, while important regulations are under the request for translation to be ready for digitalizing in later stage.
STIP Coordination Workshop was organized on 23 July 2015 with the view of developing a sustainable interagency procedure for information flows.
FTPD requests to implement a study visit to Malaysia to gain practical experience and perspective on the successful establishment and operation of the STIP including recruiting IT team, supervising design, testing, installing and monitoring the web portal.

10. Major Progress and Achievements
A4. Trade in Goods
1. Strengthening trade policy coordination mechanisms
Excellent progress has been made to improve the national trade policy coordination body.
The Prime Minister Decree of the National Steering Committee for Economic Integration (NSC) was signed in January 2015, to expand the role of NSC and Secretariat from focusing on WTO accession, to oversight all trade integration regimes such as: WTO, Regional and Bilateral trade agreements.
FTPD will continue to serve as supporting office in charge of ensuring coordination, work programming and regulatory conformity with international trade obligations in all goods and services and other trade-related areas.
FTPD requests to implement a study mission to Vietnam to learn about experience and lessons of Vietnam’s effort in developing its capacity and effective coordination mechanism for the successful trade negotiations.

11. Major Progress and Achievements
2. Dissemination of commitments and building capacity on trade
remedies
FTPD has undertaken 7 dissemination activities related to WTO post accession and AEC processes both at national and provincial levels for government and private sector as well as academia.
A study mission to Ministry of Commerce of Thailand was organized in April to learn the experiences on trade negotiations and dissemination skills of AEC Information Centre of Thailand. FTPD obtained materials and input into its draft Curriculum on Economic Integration of Lao PDR which aim to improve the methodology of FTPD’s outreach programs. The draft is expected to finalized by October 2015.

12. Major Progress and Achievements
In respect to Trade Remedies and capacity building, FTPD organized a study mission for Drafting Committee to Vietnam in March 2015 to learn about experiences and lessons of Vietnam’s efforts in developing and implementing its Trade Remedies Laws. The key findings was on the weakness of Vietnamese Trade Remedies Laws, the organization of Vietnam Competition Authority, its capacity to initiate and defend cases.
The Drafting Committee has completed its duty to finalize the draft of Safeguards Law for further consultations, as a result from various internal consultations in June 2015.
Next is to organize mass consultations through workshops and website with the public and private sectors in Vientiane Capital and provinces with the aim to generate inputs from the stakeholders as required by the Law on Making Legislation, before submitting the final draft for approval by the National Assembly in June 2016.

13. Major Progress and Achievements
The organization of Investigation Authority and capacity building to implement the Safeguards Law will commence from August 2016 onward.
The draft additional laws on Anti-Dumpling and Subsidies is expected to put for consultation and following steps of the Law on Making Legislation from July onward.
Therefore, FTPD finds the supports and great contributions from the TDF 2 a major boost to this achievements and very much need for continuous support to further develop Safeguards, Anti-dumping, and Subsidies and Countervailing Measures in Lao PDR, especially with regards to organizational arrangement and capacity building to ensure successful implementation of trade remedies and compliance with WTO obligation.

14. Major Progress and Achievements
3. Further strengthening of SPS legal framework
Good progress has been made on the revisions of the Law on Plant Protection and Livestock and Veterinary Matters. Work on 5 pieces of ministerial-level legislation is close to completion. Concept notes and drafts have been prepared for the other 16 areas;
Training provided on drafting SPS legislation and technical consultations contribute effectively to quality of legislation and capacity building;
4 policy notes on cross cutting issues have been prepared; and
The legislative work promises improved compliance with WTO and ASEAN, simplifications that can facilitate trade, and better protection against health risks

15. Major Progress and Achievements
New SPS coordination system
Department of Planning (DoP), Ministry of Agriculture and Forest will be responsible for coordinating, monitoring and communicating with SPS Departments on implementing actions plans for the two draft Laws on Plant Protection and Livestock and Veterinary Matters. DoP will review the progress and output of SPS legislation (LEG2) and report to the National Steering Committee for Economic Integration.
FTPD will be responsible for providing technical comments on questions with regard to WTO compliance raised in the report by DoP.
It was agreed that FTPD shall be kept informed of all communication relevant to the implementation of this project, so that FTPD can keep track of project progress and keep it in the right direction as one of the Trade in Goods Component.

16. Key issues
There are 2 major issues associated with the implementation of TDF2 activities:
The time consuming administrative procedure including approval process for advance payments and WB’s no-objection letter (NOL) procedure; and
The pending recruitment of a National Legal Consultant.
The lack of progress on these issues have resulted in delays in the implementation of many activities outlined in the plan.

17. Proposal and Recommendations
FTPD proposed to reallocate some budget from Trade in Services A3.1.3 to Trade in Goods A4.1. This is mainly because the trade policy advisor, the local consultant, and the implementing operating costs were charged to A4.1, resulting in inadequate budget for consulting services in the strengthening trade policy coordination mechanism in next two years.
The budget plan will be revised to better reflect the actual important and prioritized activities.
FTPD advised that there should be more flexibility in terms of organising activities that fall under the scope of the Project Document although they may not be in the approved work plan. For instant, the sharing experience activity requested by BOL to gain practical knowledge on regulatory supervision on services commitments under WTO should be facilitated.

18. Thank you for your kind attention!