5 - 8 May - Prosperity Initiative visited Sam Nuea City and Viengxay District in Lao PDR to gain a better understanding of the bamboo sector in Houaphanh Province and assess options to develop a baseline survey and associated qualitative work. The Team, which included Dr. John Marsh, Executive Director; Dr. Bob Baulch, Lead Economist; Ngo Viet Hung, Business and Investment Lead; and Sihattha Rasphone, Lao PDR Coordinator, established a formal relationship between Mekong Bamboo managers and the Houaphanh local authorities and provided an opportunity to review project progress and work plans with GRET.  

The Prosperity Initiative delegation and representatives from all concerned provincial and district government offices, bamboo processing workshops and farmer groups from Sobbao and Viengxay districts attended a bamboo stakeholder workshop. All participants were invited to discuss issues and constraints surrounding the Houaphanh bamboo industry and provide suggestions for its development. Free trade and land allocation were determined to be key factors in developing the industry and impacting poverty.

The workshop showed that the Houaphanh provincial government has made some progress in implementing land allocation in several villages. Dr. John Marsh also presented 2000 copies of the Houaphanh Investment Promotion Booklet, developed by the Mekong Bamboo programme, to Mr. Vanxay Phengsoumma, Director of Houaphanh's Planning and Investment Department (DoPI), who committed to set up a plan to develop bamboo as the second strategic crop in the province after maize.

In addition, Dr. Bob Baulch conducted a preliminary survey in some villages during the trip to develop different options for a future household baseline survey in Houaphanh. The Prosperity Initiative team also visited some remarkable bamboo forests with Mai Hok clumps of up to 100 culms and monopodial Mai Khom, similar to Moso forests in Anji County, the heart of China's bamboo industry.

As a first step to promote the trade link between Houaphanh and Viet Nam and to create competition for the benefit of the province's poor, the Prosperity Initiative team held initial talks with a bamboo processing workshop owner in Viengxay district who is willing to buy bamboo at twice the fixed price outside of his given area, a move highly supported by farmers. This initial discussion and agreement was made between Prosperity Initiative and Mr. Angkhan Keobuakham, Deputy Director of the Department of Industry and Commerce, to pilot this deal to prove Prosperity Initiative's poverty reduction approach.