Lessons Learned for the Lao People's Democratic Republic in the Process of Developing Commodity Export Markets

In all of these, domestic and export policies must support the existing international responsibilities that Vietnam has committed to and at the same time can help Vietnam expand the scope of trade exchanges, promoting import and export. Thanks to that, Vietnamese goods have been present in over 220 countries and territories.

Second, accurately identify the target market for the country's export goods;

Currently, Vietnam's main export markets are still Asia-Pacific countries, accounting for over 50%. However, with the policy of shifting market structure towards large target markets, Vietnam has implemented many policies, promoted market expansion and currently Vietnam's main markets are the EU, the United States, Japan and China. Vietnam always attaches importance to developing these markets. During the economic downturn, Vietnam promptly adjusted the market to the Middle East and Africa, which are less affected by the economic crisis. These are lessons for Laos in developing export markets. Vietnam is a successful country in implementing export promotion programs, especially in the years of renovation. Changing the market to avoid dependence on one market in exporting goods when there are fluctuations is also a good experience for Laos to learn.

Third, identify and implement a strategy for exporting goods in the direction of prioritizing products with high added value.

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In international integration, especially in the post-economic crisis period, Vietnam is adjusting its economic development strategy, including its export strategy. Vietnam is restructuring its economy, prioritizing the development of high-tech, environmentally friendly industries, developing the production of products with high scientific content and low energy consumption. In the past, in the structure of Vietnam's goods exports, processing and raw materials still accounted for a high proportion, which limited export efficiency and did not

commensurate with the country's potential and advantages. This is a lesson that Laos is also in the process of learning and implementing in the context of increasingly deep integration into the regional and world economy.

1.4.4. Lessons learned for the Lao People's Democratic Republic in the process of developing the commodity export market

Through studying the lessons learned from both the successes and limitations of the three countries above that have export activities, especially leading agricultural products in the world such as Thailand, China, Vietnam, Lao PDR as well as Lao export enterprises can draw extremely valuable lessons.

Firstly, the Lao Government needs to soon shape a complete and detailed system of legal documents to create an operational basis for businesses exporting goods to international markets;

Policies and legal document systems include market policies, commodity policies, business support systems such as export credit, market information support, and support for research, development, and expansion of new markets.

Second, produce products that suit the tastes and needs of consumers in the exporting country;

To penetrate any market, the core of Lao enterprises, and Lao PDR, is to build and produce products that meet the needs of consumers in the exporting country, while at the same time, the price and quality must be reasonable. This is a particularly important lesson from Chinese and Vietnamese enterprises that Lao enterprises can learn from. In addition, Lao enterprises can also learn from their Vietnamese and Chinese colleagues in being proactive, creative, and grasping the religious and cultural factors of the market they are targeting to create products that are attractive and different from competing products from other countries. However,

However, a current problem for Lao export goods in general, and Lao enterprises in particular, is that price competitiveness is quite weak, and they are at a disadvantage when competing with enterprises in other countries, especially enterprises from China, Thailand and Vietnam.

Third, create links between Lao enterprises exporting goods and links between Lao enterprises and partners:

Lao enterprises need to quickly form and establish links with each other in the same market or with partners in the business market. It is possible to use the experience of overseas Chinese to form links in many forms to increase opportunities and mutual cooperation between Lao enterprises and trading partners around the world.

Fourth, actively and proactively participate in regional and world forums. Participating in regional and world forums will help Lao enterprises have more opportunities to approach import-export enterprises in the world. Because international seminars and conferences are often gathering places for many enterprises looking for customers and business partners. In addition, opening international forums is also the goal of many countries in creating a meeting place, establishing, and finding markets for their national enterprises in the process of regional and global economic integration.

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Fifth, implement policies to support and promote export activities of domestic enterprises;

Along with the efforts of export enterprises, the Lao Government should also have preferential policies and support for enterprises exporting goods. Tax support, preferential policies, market information support, and many other forms of support.

Sixth, the Government and agencies of the Lao PDR

should regularly organize high-level visits to countries around the world.

This is a form that not only creates conditions to enhance the close relationship between countries and Laos, but also serves as a basis for establishing bilateral trade relations between Laos and partner countries.

Seven, organize many international fairs and exhibitions.

This will be the place to promote the image of the country, people and Lao goods in the most accessible way to local consumers in particular and international businesses in general.

Eight, consider product quality as the top criterion to conquer export markets;

In addition to price and design, product quality is an extremely important factor, it will be the most solid foundation for customers to continue signing the next export contracts.

Ninth, clearly identify the target market, from which to develop a suitable export strategy, while enhancing the competitiveness of export products in the world market.

It is necessary to clearly assess the target market of the country, and on the basis of those national goals, Lao enterprises will build a target policy to expand and develop their market. By clearly defining the target market, building their specific business strategies, export enterprises will create export products, and at the same time enhance the ability to conquer the export market with suitable products created on the basis of thorough market research.

CHAPTER 2

CURRENT STATUS OF EXPORT MARKET DEVELOPMENT OF THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE PRC

LAOS PEOPLE 2001 - 2010

2.1. WORLD ECONOMIC CONTEXT AND STATUS OF LAOS' EXPORT MARKET FROM 2001 TO PRESENT

2.1.1. Current world economic context and export situation of Lao PDR

2.1.1.1. Current world economic context

In recent years, the world economy has had many complex developments, with uneven growth rates in countries and regions. While China continues to grow at a high rate, the US economy is slowly emerging from the recession. This has negatively impacted economic growth worldwide. In addition, major economies such as the EU and Japan also have lower growth rates than in previous years. According to economic statistics, Europe, the US and Japan all seem to be very concerned about the general difficulties of the global economy in general. And almost all economies of developed countries have fallen into recession. Sales, demand and consumer prices have decreased sharply. The economies of both developed and developing countries have declined sharply.

In particular, the world market has seen unpredictable fluctuations in the prices of input materials for social production processes. Prices of many types of raw materials and supplies such as iron and steel, fertilizers, rubber, paper, textile fibers and especially gasoline and oil have continuously increased at high levels and are difficult to predict. Financial and monetary factors, especially the devaluation of the US dollar, combined with natural disasters, epidemics and regional crises continue to put significant pressure on global economic and trade development.

That said, 2008 and 2009 were a period of great turmoil and hardship for the world economy. In addition, in addition to the existing turmoil, the cause of the turmoil was the instability of the real estate and financial markets in the US, which had a serious impact on the global economy and finance. The financial crisis quickly affected the manufacturing, export and service sectors. At the end of 2008, the prices of a series of commodities dropped suddenly. Prices of steel, raw materials, food, shipping services and some other essential commodities fell by more than 50%. Entering 2009, there were no significant fluctuations in commodities.

However, due to concerns about the unstable world economic situation, investors and speculators are taking advantage of gold reserves, causing gold prices to increase rapidly, and continuously setting new price records in the global metal market. The sharp increase in gold prices, the serious decline in the currency value of the US dollar - USD in the international market, is one of the causes affecting the global economy. Because the majority of reserves of many countries, and the current international payment currency used in international trade is USD, when this currency is at risk of losing value compared to many other key currencies in the world. This is a warning bell for the difficulties and stagnation of the world economy, before the risk of a global economic and financial crisis spreading.

2.1.1.2. Situation of goods export of Lao PDR

The process of international economic integration is spreading to every country in the world economy. The Lao PDR, with its open-door policy and integration with the region and the world of the Lao Party and State in the new era, is also in the process of comprehensive and deep integration with the global economy. Therefore, fluctuations in the world economy have more or less affected the Lao economy in recent times.

The Lao economy in the past and present still faces many difficulties, inflation tends to increase, and export activities are slowing down. The trade deficit is still high, the average annual difference between exports and imports is 36.24%. Especially in the past year (2009), due to the impact of the global economic crisis, the Lao textile industry has encountered many financial difficulties, the quantity of goods received and the quantity of goods exported decreased sharply (14.00% compared to 2008), the textile industry was forced to close a number of garment factories and lay off workers.

However, with the efforts and proactiveness of ministries, branches, localities, corporations, enterprises and the entire population to overcome difficulties, the socio-economy of Laos has overcome difficulties and challenges, achieved a fairly high economic growth rate, inflation has been controlled, and many social issues have been resolved promptly and effectively. On average, the export turnover in 2006 reached 878.008 million USD, in 2007 it reached 92.567 million USD, in 2008 it reached 1,370.459 million USD, and in 2009 it reached 1,124.402 million USD [26].

In addition, Laos' trade deficit from 2006 to 2009 continued to increase sharply and caused negative impacts on the economy, worsening the balance of payments situation, increasing the economy's dependence on foreign countries. The trade deficit in 2006 was 53.401 million USD, in 2007 the trade surplus was 9.205 million USD, in 2008 it was 57.365 million USD, in 2009 the trade surplus was 58.596 million USD. Although Laos' trade deficit increased, it is not a cause for concern at present because most of the imported goods serve the construction and development of infrastructure. However, Laos needs to strengthen and encourage domestic production activities to ensure stable and sustainable economic development.

Besides the issue of import and export of goods, Laos generally maintains a stable political and macroeconomic environment. Policies

The macro economy is increasingly improved and consolidated, which contributes to creating a sustainable foundation to mobilize all resources and all economic sectors for the rapid and sustainable development of the Lao economy in the future.

2.1.2. Market situation and development of export market of Lao PDR from 2001 to present

2.1.2.1. Period from 2001 to 2005

a. The world economic situation and Laos' specific exports from 2000 to 2005

The period 2000-2005 was a period when the world market had many complicated developments. The economies of the US and Japan showed signs of slowing down, affecting the consumption of some goods in the textile, footwear, and electronics sectors. In addition, the September 11 event made the world trade economy even more difficult, negatively affecting the export activities of many countries, including Laos. China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) has made competition in the world market increasingly fierce, especially for countries with export structures similar to China. In 2003, the world economic situation continued to decline. However, in 2004-2005, the world economy began to recover but there were still many unstable factors [2].

For Laos, although it has not yet participated deeply in the world economy, it has been negatively impacted by the difficulties of the world economy, affecting the level of economic development. Laos's export situation is still low and underdeveloped because most of Laos' goods do not meet the standards to meet market demand, so export activities have not really brought many benefits to the country's economy. However, during this period, Laos has been successful in implementing policies to attract foreign investment and

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