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Laos set to attract more ‘quality investment’

Laos will attract more quality investment, including from the United States, as the small landlocked country continues to improve its investment climate, a senior official from the US State Department said this week

Souksakhone Vaenkeo (The Jakarta Post)
Fri, October 19, 2018

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Laos set to attract more ‘quality investment’

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span>Laos will attract more quality investment, including from the United States, as the small landlocked country continues to improve its investment climate, a senior official from the US State Department said this week.

Deputy Assistant Secretary Walter Douglas from the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs made the comment at talks with Lao officials when he visited the country from October 14 to 16, the US Embassy said.

“As Laos continues to improve its business environment, it will increasingly attract high quality investment, including from the US,” Douglas was quoted as saying during talks with the deputy minister of energy and mines, Thongphat Inthavong.

“This will drive sustainable and inclusive economic growth while providing opportunity for American business.”

Douglas was in Laos to review the progress in bilateral relations and to brief Lao officials on the US Indo-Pacific Strategy. The two sides discussed ways to continue expanding high-value US investment in Laos, one of the fastest growing economies in the ASEAN region.

During the meeting, Douglas reaffirmed US support for ASEAN, the 10-member regional bloc of which Laos is a member. He thanked Laos for its important role as the ASEAN country coordinator for the US.

Douglas also emphasized US interest in promoting rules-based economic growth, and high-value trade and investment.

“The Indo-Pacific Strategy is a set of rules and principles that respects the sovereignty and aspirations of all countries in the region,” he said. “It’s very important to have an open, fair, and transparent environment for trade and investment, as we promote sustainable development.”

Currently, the Lao government is intensifying action to improve the ease-of-doing-business (EODB) environment in an attempt to attract more foreign investment.

Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith has announced ambitious efforts to improve Laos’s EODB ranking on the World Bank’s list from the current three digits to two digits by 2020.

Addressing an official reception to mark the 242nd anniversary of the US Independence Day in Vientiane in July, Ambassador to Laos Rena Bitter said the US would continue to support the Lao government’s efforts to improve the business environment to attract more investments.

“American firms are eager to do more business with Laos, and Lao government officials at the highest level have told us they welcome American businesses in Laos,” Bitter wrote on the embassy’s website.

She encouraged American firms to look for opportunities to do business with Lao companies, to sell American products in Laos, and to bring to Laos the high quality and standards that make American businesses famous.

As part of the US-ASEAN Business Council Mission to Laos, leaders from major American companies visited Vientiane in August and met Lao officials to discuss new ways to expand trade and investment between the two sides.

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