Promoting the export of goods in the Lao People's Democratic Republic in the process of international economic integration

The direction of gradually liberalizing the commodity market and encouraging the export of goods. This is reflected in the change, reduction, and exemption of export tax on goods, gradually expanding towards liberalization of export subjects, gradually reducing and then eliminating export licenses, gradually narrowing the use of quotas, and finally eliminating quotas on export goods.

- The mechanism for managing goods export activities has gradually shifted from management mainly by administrative orders to management by law, plans, and policies through the flexible use of economic measures and trade policy tools, such as taxes, quotas, export support, exchange rates, etc. The gradual increase in the use of economic policy tools instead of administrative tools in the field of goods export shows the transformational characteristics of goods export policy in Laos. The State's policy innovation efforts have had a strong impact on goods export, reflected in Laos's high achievements in exporting quite successful goods in the past 5 years, such as textiles, electricity, wood and wood products, gold and agricultural products. Up to now, mining (copper, gold), textiles, electricity, wood and wood products, agricultural products such as corn, coffee, peanuts, rice, livestock (cows, buffaloes), etc.

- The policy of direct subsidies for enterprises exporting goods and export rewards has contributed to the continuous increase in goods exports in Laos for many years, creating many new potential markets. In addition, the export subsidy policy has helped export enterprises reduce losses due to reduced export prices, supporting enterprises to overcome difficulties and continue doing business in unfavorable conditions...

Since the 4th National Congress of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (November 1998) until now, 12 years have passed, Laos has shifted from a centrally planned production system to a market economy with State management under socialist orientation. Thanks to the wise leadership of the Party and the solidarity of the entire people, the strategy of stabilizing and developing the socio-economy in 1996-2005 has come into life, gradually stabilizing the people's lives. In the years

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Through export business activities of Lao PDR has always been maintained and developed steadily.

That is demonstrated in the following achievements:

- The set goals have been achieved and have contributed significantly to the implementation of the socio-economic development strategy for the 1996-2005 and 2006-2011 periods. Import-export activities are a very important factor in promoting internal strength, creating more investment capital, innovating technology, increasing employment, and accelerating the country's industrialization and modernization process.

- Has carried out the task of "improving the export structure towards increasing processed products, reducing the proportion of raw products, creating a number of products with large volume and relatively stable markets". (see table 2.4)

- Basically, the policy of "import must effectively serve production development and technological innovation, promote the improvement of quality and competitiveness of goods, and meet the essential needs of life" has been implemented.

- Fundamentally innovate the import-export mechanism in the direction of eliminating the "foreign trade monopoly" regime, increasingly expanding the right to do import-export business for manufacturing industries, localities, economic sectors, including foreign-invested enterprises, minimizing and eliminating quotas and licenses for each trip, thereby contributing to limiting the "ask for and give" mechanism, the policy mechanism to encourage exports receives increasing attention, macro-monetary tools such as interest rates and exchange rates are used more smoothly to encourage exports and orient imports, the legal corridor is gradually improved, especially for the first time passing the trade law, the most-favored-nation regime, commodity codes, gradually reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers, to the "national treatment" regime.

- Shown in the following indicators: revenue, profit, payment to the state budget, increase in business capital, fixed assets. Workers' jobs are maintained, income and living standards are constantly increased.

- The position and strength of the export industry is increasingly developing, the prestige of the industry is increasing, creating trust and mutual understanding in business relations with domestic and foreign partners as well as with levels, sectors, provinces and ministries.

- Established markets, traditional and trustworthy partners, mutual understanding abroad to export products. Established sources of goods to supply for export.

- Have a more dynamic management system than before, including economic and business management capacity and qualifications, and human resources qualifications. The staff working in import and export have good moral qualities, enthusiasm, and are quick to grasp information about the market and product prices.

- Export items have achieved the set targets and contributed significantly to the implementation of the socio-economic development strategy for the periods 1996-2005 and 2006-2011. Export activities are a very important factor in promoting internal strength, creating more capital for technology investment, increasing employment, and promoting the country's industrialization process.

The export market situation has been expanded, implementing the task of improving the export structure towards increasing processed products, reducing the proportion of raw products, creating a number of products with large volume and relatively stable market.

- Overcame the market crisis in the early 90s due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the abolition of the socialist regime in Eastern Europe, basically implemented the policy of diversifying markets and economic relations, actively penetrated and established a foothold in new markets, and developed new relations.

- Exports in the period 2001-2005 increased rapidly by an average of 5.5%/year, compared to 1.6%/year in the period 1996-2000; export items were also diversified, in addition to electricity, wood and wood products, and garments, there were some additional key export items such as minerals, coffee, processed forest products and the appearance of

Some other products have potential; export markets have been expanded, in addition to markets such as Thailand, Vietnam and China, there have been additional markets such as Australia, England, France, Germany, etc.

In general, during the 2001-2010 period, the export sector of the Lao PDR achieved great achievements, basically implementing the policies set out in the socio-economic stability and development strategy, contributing significantly to the socio-economic development of the country.

2.3.2. Existing aspects and limitations

Besides the achievements in exporting goods in Laos, there are still many limitations that need to be overcome. Specifically as follows:

- Investment activities in export production are still low, mainly raw commodity products.

- State management agencies and enterprises are not prepared to exploit export markets.

- The ability of management agencies and policy makers to analyze and forecast international market developments is still limited, and the ability of Lao export enterprises to adapt to the new context of the world market is still weak.

- Still unable to overcome technical barriers of importing countries and new trade barriers in the increasingly developing globalization process.

- The quality of exported goods is uneven and unstable.

- Weaknesses in science, technology and management methods.

- Not yet focused on investment in agricultural science.

- Infrastructure and support services are still inadequate.

In addition, there are specific policy limitations as follows:

Firstly, Laos does not have a specific policy to promote goods exports in the long term. Most policy measures are mainly situational.

Patchwork. Over time, over time, state agencies have only stopped at assessing how much the export turnover of goods has increased compared to the previous period, compared to the previous year, and what percentage (%) it accounts for in the total export turnover of the whole country, without assessing the effectiveness of the export of the goods achieved. It can be seen that for some goods, there seems to be a situation of "exporting to get" to solve the problem of surplus goods, without considering long-term effectiveness. Thus, the policy of exporting goods in Laos is difficult to answer some of the questions raised:

- Which export items are long-term key products that require greater focused efforts;

- What is the export efficiency of each type of product in terms of added value scale compared to investment scale, profit scale compared to investment scale, and in terms of the spreading effect on other economic sectors and fields;

- Exporting each type of product to what level, quality and quantity, corresponding to what scale of investment capital, is optimally effective [8].

Second, the application of export tax policies in recent years has been aimed at generating profits, collecting state budget revenue, etc., so those policies must be adjusted to suit the specific situation at each point in time. Invisibly, for example, tax policies have hindered export enterprises in developing long-term production and business plans, hindering the promotion of goods exports; frequent changes in tax rates have also caused tax policies to be unstable and patchy, causing difficulties in policy implementation.

In addition, due to the ineffective combination with other policies, it has brought about some disadvantages such as: (i) not showing the orientation of shifting the structure of goods exports; (ii) not creating orientation for the shift of factors into the production of effective goods; (iii) tax policy only encourages quantitative increase, not bringing about qualitative change through structural shift and technological innovation.

Third, the policies on export and import goods are not linked together. Export and import activities are two parts of the international trade process, they are closely related to each other, both as a premise and a condition for each other. Export is to have foreign currency to serve import, while import ensures the supply of inputs for production with reasonable quality and price to improve production capacity and increase competitiveness, thereby promoting export. To implement the export-oriented production strategy, the import goods policy needs to aim at serving the production of export goods (experience from China has also shown this issue). But in reality, in recent years, Laos' import goods policy has not been linked to the goal of promoting export. Tax incentives and investment incentives have been given more to import substitution production than to export-oriented production. For example, the wood, gold, copper, sugar and cement processing industries enjoy preferential policies through investment, low tax policies for raw materials, components, spare parts and high import taxes for finished products, thereby these industries have many favorable conditions to develop and meet domestic demand well but for export they are still not competitive. Meanwhile, the supporting industries for goods have many advantages in production and export such as garment, footwear, gold, copper and electricity. The reason for the above shortcomings is that when formulating policies on export and import goods, planners have not based on signals of the market economy, have not properly assessed the potential as well as the level of competitiveness of leaders from the Government level to the industry level, even to the wishes of some individual enterprises.

Fourth, the policy of regulating the right to participate in direct export has invisibly created a monopoly position for some enterprises. This has led to a situation of price pressure when purchasing export products, causing losses for enterprises. Thereby, enterprises can also delay in purchasing goods during the harvest season when the world demand for goods is low, causing difficulties for

business in product consumption.

Fifth, the State's use of export licenses has achieved a number of goals such as: unifying state management of goods export activities, controlling national goods export activities. However, the use of export licenses also has the following limitations:

- Regulations on export licenses and procedures for applying for export licenses are cumbersome and complicated;

- The regulations on the conditions that businesses must meet to be granted a license to export goods are too high, making it difficult for businesses to meet them;

This has led to negative issues in the issuance of export licenses, leading to bribery in applying for export licenses. All of the above costs are included in the product cost, making it difficult for businesses to compete.

Sixth, some regulations in the policy to support enterprises exporting goods and export rewards are unclear, causing difficulties in implementing this policy. Regulations on export rewards are still complicated, the review process is still slow, leading to a situation where some enterprises lose enthusiasm, the effectiveness of the export reward policy has not been fully utilized in stimulating enterprises to boost the export of goods and seek new export markets.

Seventh, the policy of encouraging the consumption of goods through contracts between enterprises of all economic sectors signing contracts for the consumption of goods with producers to link production with processing and consumption of goods has been effective, but has not been as effective as expected. The evidence is that when world commodity prices increase, farmers are willing to sell their goods to private traders, instead of selling to export processing enterprises according to signed contracts, and conversely, when world commodity prices decrease, processing enterprises also abandon farmers to consume their products themselves.

make.

Eighth, the solutions applied to reduce input service costs for exported goods are still slow to implement and ineffective. Many service costs for delivery, road transport, air transport, etc. are still high compared to the region, increasing costs and affecting the competitiveness of Lao export goods. Trade promotion activities have not had fundamental changes, are still spontaneous, scattered, unprofessional, and the effectiveness achieved from trade promotion programs is not high. The trade information system and market forecasting generally do not meet the requirements of state management as well as support for enterprises exporting goods. The policy mechanisms and export management measures are not specific, lack comprehensiveness and long-term vision, so the efficiency and effectiveness are not high; in many cases they appear passive. The coordination between central and local agencies in export activities is still loose and ineffective; shortage of managers, professionals and technical workers

High professional qualifications are still quite common.

The export sector in the 5 years 2001-2005 still faced many difficulties. Laos's per capita exports were still very low due to limitations in large-scale production and processing to improve product quality. Exports of raw agricultural products and raw materials with low added value still accounted for a large proportion (about 50% of total export turnover), so export value was low and easily declined when prices fluctuated unfavorably. In addition, more than half of Laos' export turnover was in products with unstable market demand (electricity, textiles) or with decreasing export volume (wood), or with very volatile prices (agricultural products).

Exports in the third quarter of 2010-2011 alone reached 252 million USD, an increase of about 21.82% compared to the previous quarter, mainly wood and wood products exports increased by 39% (accounting for 3% of total export value) and mine export value increased by 33% (accounting for 54% of total export value); compared to the same period

Promoting the export of goods in the Lao People's Democratic Republic in the process of international economic integration - 18

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