The Ministry of Energy and Mines of Lao PDR (MME) and the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) held a Consultative Workshop on the Preliminary Results of National Energy Statistics of Lao PDR 2017 on 30 November 2017.

Around 40 participants from the Ministry of Energy and Mines as well as other related Ministries participated in this workshop. Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Energy and Mines H.E. Dr Daovong Phonekeo and ERIA's Special Advisor to the President on Energy Affairs Mr Shigeru Kimura delivered the opening remarks for the workshop.

Minister Phonekeo praised the hard work of the Ministries officials and ERIA's researchers in preparing the National Energy Statistics of Lao PDR 2017, which will be the first ever energy data and statistics for the country. He commended the good work done by his Ministry in collaboration with line Ministries in collecting the data, which was very challenging as the data existed in various forms from different data sources and agencies.

He also thanked ERIA for providing technical assistance to this project and he encouraged all agencies to continue providing and sharing data. The updated data will be very important in designing appropriate energy policy in Lao PDR especially as the country may face more challenges ahead due to the increase of energy consumption to support economic growth. Furthermore, Lao PDR can become vulnerable to challenges in ensuring energy security if their energy policies are not well prepared to address these foreseeable challenges.

Mr Kimura echoed the comments made by Minister Phonekeo, adding that Lao PDR will need to have a good data collection system in order to facilitate the future work of collecting and updating energy data and statistics. The level of detail of energy data is very important to ensure that energy statistics are based on accurate information. The most daunting challenge that the MME faced was the level of data availability, and it posed great challenges to break down the energy data consumption into sub-sectors. Thus, he urged MME and Ministries involved in the statistics to set up a regular technical working group to discuss the issues and challenges in collecting and providing energy data. ERIA could provide technical support to facilitate the technical discussion when needed.

The participants actively shared their views and comments following presentations by ERIA researchers and MME official on the preliminary findings of the current data situation, energy consumption survey, and energy balance table of Lao PDR. The presenters discussed the data collection methodology and analysis, as well as the preparation of national energy balance.

The National Energy Statistics of Lao PDR 2017 is planned to be published early in 2018.