The project “Enhancing Sustainable Tourism, Clean Production and Export Capacity in Lao People’s Democratic Republic” is an inter-UN agency project involving ITC, ILO, UNCTAD, UNIDO and UNOPS. The main objective of this project is to develop an overall competitive tourism industry, while at the same time strengthening the organic agriculture and the handicraft (especially the silk) industries in order to achieve a spill-over effect on those sectors through backward-linkages, and improving the export volume and quality of the above mentioned sectors, thereby positively impacting on poverty in targeted provinces of Lao PDR.
Under this inter-UN agency project, UNCTAD has specific responsibilities on 2 areas: (a) enhanced backward linkages of the tourism sector in selected provinces of Lao PDR to clean and organic agriculture enterprises & local silk craft enterprises and (b) strengthened capacities of the Lao Government in the areas of trade policy and non-tariff measures, as well as improved export opportunities of selected high quality silk & organic agriculture products. The work focuses initially on the tourism sector in Luang Prabang but also cover the whole country.
The Earth Net Foundation is contracted by UNCTAD to work as consultant on various areas, including:
- conduct an overview study of organic agriculture in Laos
- identify Laotian organic products (from Luang Prabang and elsewhere in Laos) of possible interest to Laotian tourism sector, particularly in Luang Prabang
- produce materials to raise local awareness on organic agriculture for generic audiences
- organize technical training workshop to support the development of organic sector in Lao
- assist in the planning for 1st Lao Organic Agriculture Forum, a platform for public-private sector dialogue
- conduct initial scoping study on market potential for Laos organic silk, with recommendations on organic silk production system
