Lao People’s Democratic Republic Rapid eTrade Readiness Assessment

The Lao PDR Rapid eTrade Readiness Assessment is the seventh such assessment conducted by UNCTAD and the third for an ASEAN LDC after Cambodia (December 2016) and Myanmar (November 2017). Lao PDR is actively working to graduate from the list of Least Developed Countries. The Lao PDR economy continues to perform well: in the last six or seven years, there certainly has been a noticeable shift in its economic outlook. In its quest to diversify its economy and trade Lao, now a member of the WTO, has turned to services as an engine of economic development. Services matter both because they make a significant contribution to export diversification and growth and because they play the role of an enabler of other sectors of the economy in moving up the value chain and contribute to the economic diversification process. Information and communications technology (ICT) services are slowly becoming an important segment of the Lao economy, triggered by Lao’s participation in international negotiating fora, because of its geographical position in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the need to catch up with the development of digital economies at its borders. Despite this, the adoption of e-commerce both by firms and consumers has been limited, raising questions about the importance of persistent bottlenecks.