Lao People’s Democratic Republic is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Myanmar (Burma) and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west.

Laos’s population was recorded as 6.4 million in 2010. Its GDP is 6.7 billion USD, and its growth rate is 7.9% in 2010. The total trade volume of the country is 3.1 billion USD. The services sector constitutes 41.8% of the GDP. The agricultural and forestry sector of Laos has 30.8% share from total GDP, while industrial sector has a share of 27.4%.

Even though the high share of agriculture from the GDP, only 4.01% of the country is arable land, and 0.34% used as permanent crop land.  Rice dominates the agricultural sector, since about 80% of the arable land area is being sed for growing rice.

The Lao economy depends heavily on investment and trade with its neighbors, Thailand, Vietnam, and, especially in the north, China.

Laos is a member of ASEAN.

Turkey has signed a Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement with Laos in 2008 in order to establish a legal framework for bilateral commercial and economic relations, which came into force in 2010.

Within the framework of this Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement, Turkey-Laos Joint Economic Committee Mechanism was established. This mechanism envisages holding regular meetings with the participation of public institutions from both Turkey and Laos alternately in Ankara and Vientiane to evaluate all aspects of the bilateral economic and commercial relations. The first meeting of the Turkey-Laos Joint Economic Committee is planned to be held at the earliest convenience.
 
Exports

Laos was Turkey’s 167th largest export partner in 2011.

Turkey’s exports to Laos were 3.9 million USD in 2011 with an increase of 221% (1.2 million USD) from 2010. In 2005, Turkey did not make any exports to Laos, however since 2005, in which Turkey’s “Asia-Pacific Commercial and Economic Relations Development Strategy” was initiated; bilateral commercial and economic relations between Turkey and Laos gained a new perspective.

The top export categories (2-digit SITC) for 2011 were: meat and meat preparations (98.2%); road vehicles (0.96%), fixed vegetable fats and oils (0.71%), power generating machinery and equipment (0.02%), and  general industrial machinery and equipment (0.02%).

Imports

Laos was Turkey’s 150th largest import partner in 2011.

Turkey’s imports from Laos realized as 1.1 million USD in 2011, decreasing by 12% (1.3 million USD) compared to 2010. Besides, our imports from Laos have increased by 110% since 2005 (547 thousand USD).

The top imports categories (2-digit SITC) for 2011 were: articles of apparel, clothing accessories (73.8%), rubber manufactures (25.6%), and office machinery, automatic data-processing equipment (0.49%).

Trade Balance

The trade volume is not very high between Turkey and Laos mainly because of the geographical distance. The trade volume between Turkey and Laos reached 5.1 million USD in 2011, and the trade surplus in favor of Turkey is 2.8 million USD. In 2010, there was a trade deficit of 71 thousand USD against Turkey.