Laos trumpets transport success

Laos has made considerable progress in its efforts to develop connectivity and trade facilitation, a senior government official told the meeting of Asian-European Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) in Vientiane on Tuesday.

LLDC representatives from Asia and Europe convened their three-day final regional review meeting, which ends today, to review the progress made over the past decade in carrying out the Almaty Programme of Action (APA), which is designed to address the special needs of LLDCs.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Alounkeo Kittikhoun said that Laos had incorporated all five APA priority areas into its national development strategy, especially in the area of infrastructure development, trade regulations and transit systems.

“Throughout its implementation, we have made considerable progress,” he told the meeting. Regarding infrastructure development, the Lao government adopted and introduced a new policy with the aim of converting the country from being landlocked to a land link.”

Alounkeo said to realise this transformation, the government has developed several programmes and policies on infrastructure development, especially the development of an efficient and reliable system for transit transport routes and the facilitation of cross-border transport of goods and people. 

The deputy minister stressed the importance of bilateral, sub-regional and regional cooperation frameworks in pursuit of the objectives of the APA.

These include the implementation of various bilateral agreements with neighbouring countries, including the East-West Economic Corridor in central Laos, and the North-South Economic Corridor in the north.

In addition, there is the Greater Mekong Sub-region Cross-Border Transport Agreement, the Quadrilateral Agreement (China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand) on Commercial Navigation on the Lancang-Mekong River, and various Asean framework agreements.

Thanks to these agreements, large projects are in the pipeline, “Alounkeo said. “These include, among others, railway links for Laos-Thailand, Laos-Vietnam and Laos-China, and the Singapore-Kunming Rail Link project.”

There are also Mekong bridge projects between Laos and Thailand and Laos and Myanmar, road transport network projects within the country, and international linkages as part of the Asian Highway and Asean Highway routes.

The Lao government has invested heavily in the improvement of its transport infrastructure, with the Ministry of Public Works and Transport allocating more than 40 per cent of its annual budget to upgrade and maintain road networks.

The focus is mainly on the reconstruction and rehabilitation of international links as well as designated routes in Asean and the Greater Mekong Sub-region.

At the same time, the government recently completed amendments to transport laws to support the implementation of the above-mentioned agreements.

After becoming the 158th member of the World Trade Organisation on February 2, strenuous efforts have been made to bring Laos in line with WTO requirements. 

However, Laos faces disadvantages in relation to its geographical remoteness from international markets, and high transport and trade transaction costs, Alounkeo said. It has also suffered from cumbersome customs and border-crossing procedures, inadequate and poor transport infrastructure, a small economy, low productive capacity, low technology, insufficient human resource skills, limited export diversification and a lack of export competitiveness.

To overcome these disadvantages, Alounkeo recommended proposals to the meeting including promoting a genuine partnership between the public and private sectors and between landlocked and transit developing countries and their development partners.

He also stressed the need to strengthen efforts to simplify and harmonise laws, regulations, procedures and transport related documents of LLDC and transit countries and further improve and maximise the utilisation of existing road networks and economic corridors.

Meanwhile, all LLDCs and neighbouring transit countries should commit themselves with stronger political will to address the special needs and problems of LLDCs, he stressed.