On 29 November 2017 in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, the CLMV Regional Workshop on Strategies to Reduce Barriers on Services Trade was held with the support of the regional project “Support to the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI)” of German Development Cooperation implemented by GIZ.

Participants of the workshop were officials from key concerned ministries of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Viet Nam: Commerce/Trade, Planning/Investment, Health, and Tourism, as well as other ministries with a pronounced responsibility for services trade. The workshop was headed by Mr. P. Ravidran Palaniappan, Chair of the Working Group on Services for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), and services trade experts of ASEAN.

The aims of this workshop were: (i) to provide a platform for learning about good practices on service liberalization from other ASEAN Member States, (ii) to finalize national action plans for the reduction of key barriers to services trade in the CLMV identified in cooperation with the Support to IAI project, and (iii) to explore the potential for regional cooperation between the CLMV in common areas of interest.

Picture 1 - CLMV Regional Workshop on Strategies to Reduce Barriers to Services Trade

The workshop reviewed the status quo of service trade liberalization in the ASEAN Community and shaded light on issues of specific importance, for example the close link between competition policy and service trade. It provided a platform for knowledge exchange on services liberalization under the umbrella of “ASEAN helps ASEAN”. Representatives from four countries presented, discussed and finalized their action plans to reduce identified key priority barriers to services trade. Importantly, it addressed the question to what extent and how the national plans shall be formalized in the follow-up to the workshop.

At the workshop, Viet Nam delegation headed by Mr. Le An Hai, Deputy Director, Africa-Asia Market Department, Ministry of Industry and Trade had a presentation on the national action plan on tackling key priority barriers to services trade. The national action plan provided recommendations for short, medium and long term activities in cooperation between the government, the private sector, and development partners to address one horizontal and two sector-specific barriers (tourism and healthcare).

Picture 2-Viet Nam Delegation at the Workshop

In addition, at the workshop, a number of regional cooperation on the reduction of services trade barriers between the CLMV were recommended, such as: Disseminate information about trade liberalizations (e.g. FTAs handbook, online library, service portal), Promote adoption and adherence to new competition law passed by Government, Support institutional capacity strengthening on trade negotiations and interpretations of FTAs, Build capacity for related Government Officials on Digital Economy, etc.

The workshop also explored possible areas of regional cooperation on the reduction of services trade barriers between CLMV, especially in the sectors of tourism and healthcare. In the health sector, representatives from four countries called international supports for building capacity, policy development (e.g. policy on foreign investment in health services, public-private partnership), and common researches in trade and health.

The workshop was preceded by a basic training on services trade (27-278 November 2017) and followed by an in-depth training on managing services negotiations (30 November-01 December 2017)  in the same location. Both trainings were implemented by services trade experts of ASEAN from the CIMB ASEAN Research Institute.