Mekong Institute, in collaboration with the National Institute for Economic Research (NIER), Lao PDR, is organizing a four-day training course as part of the research project on ‘Competitiveness of Lao Enterprises in the ASEAN’ in Vientiane, Lao PDR on February 12-15, 2019. Supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the training course aims to enhance the research capacities of researchers on enterprise competitiveness. It gathers 16 participants from the NIER, Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of Planning and Investment, and Ministry of Industry and Commerce of Lao PDR.  

The intensive training course covers various concepts on competitiveness, and tools and techniques for conducting survey among selected sectors to gather primary and secondary information at national, industry and enterprise level to assess competitiveness.

“This training is very important and applicable for Laos to learn more about competitiveness concepts, tools and techniques for evaluating the competitiveness of the firm and country levels. This is a good opportunity for our Lao researchers to learn more and deepen their understanding in these areas from the experts or resource persons,” said Dr. Leeber Leebouapao, Vice President of the NIER in his welcome and opening remarks.

On the second day of the training, the participants will revise a draft questionnaire and conduct field testing of the questionnaire on four different types of stakeholders – policy makers, agri/agro, manufacturing and service sectors. By the end of the training program, they are expected to be able to apply the knowledge and experiences gained in finalizing the questionnaire and undertaking survey initiatives in the next phase of the project.