Meeting of the committee to draft the decree on electronic commerce (e-commerce) of the Lao PDR took place on 12 February 2019, at Settha Palace Hotel, Vientiane Capital. The event was chaired by H.E. Bounmy Manivong, Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce, the chairman of the committee, with concerned sectors for more than 35 persons actively attended to the said meeting.
The primary purpose of this meeting was to approve workplan for drafting the decree; to acknowledge roles of the committee members who were appointed by the Decision no. 005/MOIC.DFTP on 18 January 2019; and to summarize the lessons learned from other countries, particularly the researches related to e-commerce development in Lao PDR.
In conventional trade, we have disadvantage in transportation cost compares to other countries due to the land-locked country condition. However, e-commerce will provide solution to overcome such constrain, H.E. Bounmy said. the new trading in the form of e-commerce is a low-value shipment that does not require the large-scale transport, thus it shall enable the drastically cut expenses for the transport and the access to foreign markets. It will also enable small and medium businesses, including micro-businesses, to be engaged with international trade more in the future, he said.
He also pointed out that e-commerce has become popular in Lao PDR recently through the online shopping, both domestic and cross-border. Therefore, decree on e-commerce is needed to provide legal base and to promote mutal trust between buyers and sellers. E-commerce will boost up our trade development to become modernisation step by step.
