CONSIDERING AN INVESTMENT IN LAOS? NEED SOME INFORMATION? DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH WAITING FOR AN ANSWER

Background

In Chapter Four of my book 'Your Investment Guide to Thailand' (www.burning-bison.com) I talk about the difficulty of gathering and verifying information needed to develop an investment strategy. A couple of the problems I mentioned are incorrect email addresses in web sites or literature, and the lack of response to emails. Well, Thailand is not alone in this regard. What follows now is an account of my efforts in November 2011 to contact the Laotian government agency responsible for attracting foreign investment.

The first action I took:

A google search using "laos investment" found http://invest.laopdr.org and I obtained and tried to use the email address at http://invest.laopdr.org/who%20to%20contact.htm

The result I achieved:

"Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:
fimc@laotel.com
Technical details of permanent failure:
Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 550 550 Requested action was not taken because this server doesn't handle mail for that user (state 14)."

The second action I took:

I tried to use an address that I found here: http://www.bkklaoembassy.com.

The result I achieved:

Your message cannot be delivered to the following recipients:
Recipient address: sabaidee@bkklaoembassy.com
Reason: Over quota

When I eventually called the embassy and asked for their current email address, I was given the same address as per the web site ... they are unaware that it did not work? Is it ever checked or tested?

The next action I took:

Google search for alternative email address for the Laos embassy and found another address at http://embassy-finder.com/laos_in_bangkok_thailand

The result I achieved:

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:
banethok@loxinfo.co.th
Technical details of permanent failure:
Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 550 550 #5.1.0 Address rejected banethok@loxinfo.co.th (state 14).

I also noticed a comment from 'David' at http://embassy-finder.com/laos_in_bangkok_thailand who had earlier posted:

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 09:51 EDT
"NO CONTACT
Same story here. Many times I have tried to phone and email the Laos Embassy in Bgk, never received a reply to emails and was never able to speak to anyone on 'phone. NOT GOOD ENOUGH."

The next action I took:

I continued google searching for alternative email address for Laos embassy in Bangkok and found this page:

http://www.mofa.gov.la/Addresses/AddressOfLaoDiplomatic.htm

The table here, which apparently was meant to provide contact details for all Laotian embassies and consulates was blank (why?), but I tried an address that I saw at the bottom of the page.

The result I achieved:

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

ict@mofa.gov.la

Technical details of permanent failure:
The recipient server did not accept our requests to connect. Learn more at http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=7720
[spam.mofa.gov.la. (0): Connection dropped]
[mail.mofa.gov.la. (10): Connection dropped]

The next action I took:

I called and spoke to Mr.Somchay Inthapatha at the Bangkok embassy, who was very helpful. He provided me with the URL for a "new web site" at www.investlaos.gov.la. I assume then the web site I originally found at http://invest.laopdr.org is the 'old' web site - which should have been removed when the new one was uploaded. I was able to send an email using a mail form in the new web site, but now more that a year later I think it's safe to assume that a response will not be forthcoming.

And finally:

This was clearly an unfortunate outcome for all parties concerned, and quite unnecessarily so when one considers the limited investment of time and IT skills that would be required to rectify these issues.

If anyone would like to avoid some of the problems that I encountered then here are some contact details that work:

Mr.Somchay Inthapatha
Third Secretary
Economic and Commercial
Embassy of Lao PDR in Bangkok

Tel: 081 83 55 777 and Email: somchayi (at) yahoo.com

Addendum: In May 2012 I came across this item and I have included it here now for general interest: World Bank Group Finds over 80 percent of Investment Promotion Agencies' Efforts Falling Short