Minister of Industry and Commerce Malaythong Kommasith proposed this morning amendments to the Law on Enterprises to the ongoing 4th Ordinary Session of the National Assembly for its consideration of approval.
“The legislation aims to promote investment and the effective management of enterprises, win trust from investors as well as to promote modernization in the commerce sector,” said Minister Malaythong.
“Today, there are 178 state enterprises in the country but only 10 of them have benefits. The state enterprise is a state investment, if it doesn’t operate well it will cost the government a lot of money, if it goes well or is successful, a certain group of people will get rich. This is a problem in Laos,” said NA member for Borikhamxay Province Mr Souvanny Xaysana.
Mr Souvanny raised an example from Vietnam where the government decided to punish individuals and held a manager accountable for mismanaging a state enterprise and causing a loss of USD 2.4 billion.
He urged the government to amend the law thoroughly and realistically as Laos faces many problems as shown in the past.
NA member from Constituency 1 Vientiane Ms Valy Vetsaphong urged the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to devise an easy procedure for business registration. She asked the ministry to play a central role in formulating and approving business documents noting that doing so will create more favourable conditions for investment.
“Now there are over 180,000 businesses in the country. They don’t include businesses in special economic zones. In reality, it is challenging and difficult to register a business as it takes a long time for a document to be approved. This discourages investors from investing in Laos,” said Ms Valy Vetsaphong.
“If revised, this law will become a fundamental tool for helping increase business registration and make investment convenient and easy,” Mr Malaythong Kommasith told the ongoing 4th Ordinary Session chaired by Vice President of the National Assembly Mr Sommad Pholsena on Wednesday.
Lawmakers are expected to discuss through the end of this month the adoption of several laws including three new laws – on passports, waterways and museums – and amendments to laws on lawyers, court registry, prevention and control of infectious diseases, enterprises, science and technology, military prosecutor’s office, and electronic transactions.
Source: Lao News Agency