Laos

From 08 – 10 June 2022, Mrs. Latdaphone Vongkhamheng, the Swisscontact in Lao PDR staff joined the 5th Advances in Destination Management (ADM) conference that was organized in Kalmar Campus, Sweden.

To begin collaborative efforts on environmental issues in the service sector, the Waste to Value Project (W2V) implemented under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE) and the Lao Hotel and Restaurant Association (LHRA) signed a Memorandum of Agreement on May 27, 2022. 

Mr. Nouphanh Outsa, Director General of DTVET/MoES, and Mr. Christian Engler, Deputy Director for Cooperation of SDC, co-chaired the meeting on May 10th, 2022. The meeting was held at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Vientiane and was attended by more than 70 people from the project's five provinces, both at the central and provincial levels. Covid preventive measures have been implemented. Three people joined the discussion over the internet. The meeting's goal was to present and discuss project progress in 2021 and the 2022 plan, as well as to approve the project report and plan.

The meeting's goal was to present and discuss project progress in 2021 and the 2022 plan, as well as to approve the project report and plan. The report and strategy were delivered by the VTESS Team Leader and the Component Managers. In addition, the results of the Project's Mid-Term Review (MTR) were presented and evaluated. Because of Covid, the MTR was delayed. The MTR was commissioned by SDC and done on Nils Gardek and Sunnti Duangtavanh from January to March 2022, who also presented the findings at the meeting. The Project commissioned Laos Social Research to conduct a tracer study for C1 graduates from the first training batch (LSR). The study took place from September to November of 2021 - the findings of which were also presented and discussed during the meeting.