Our Asia office

LuxDev’s Asia Office opened in 2016 in Vientiane, Laos, to respond to the shifting strategic priorities of Luxembourg Development Cooperation in Southeast Asia. In particular, the relocation of the Regional office reflects the increasing concentration of LuxDev operations in Laos. LuxDev Asia office operates in close coordination with the Luxembourg Embassy, which is located in the same compound.

The Asia office is instrumental in facilitating knowledge management throughout all concerned sectors regarding best practices, and provides support in monitoring, technical backstopping, capacity development and cross-cutting issues.

In Laos, under the framework of the fifth Indicative Cooperation Programme (ICP) between Laos and Luxembourg, LuxDev is currently operating in the sectors of health, technical and vocational education and training (TVET), local development as well as enhancing the rule of law, access to justice and good governance.

LuxDev implements the Health and Nutrition Programme in cooperation with the Ministry of Health.

In the TVET sector, LuxDev is the implementing agency for the Team Europe Flagship Programme, Skills for Tourism, Agriculture and Forestry Programme, co-funded by Luxembourg, Switzerland and the European Union.

The Local Development Programme, co-funded by Luxembourg and Switzerland and implemented by the Ministry of Planning and Investment and LuxDev, supports the village-level implementation modality successfully developed under ICP IV in cooperation with Lao authorities.

In the legal sector, LuxDev in consortium with ILSTA and the University of Luxembourg are currently supporting the Ministry of Justice and the Faculties of Law of Vientiane and Champasak through a support project in the implementation of the rule of law, access to justice and good governance.

These four important programmes collectively aim to achieve sustainable structural change by offering capacity development and technical assistance to Lao authorities in implementing institutional reforms and complementary infrastructure and service development activities at the national, provincial, district, and village levels.

The main objective of ICP V, endowed with an envelope of EUR 99 million, is to contribute to poverty reduction in Lao PDR as well as to support the efforts of the Lao government in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, with a particular focus on assisting the most vulnerable groups and population in poor and remote areas. Bilateral cooperation constitutes the primary implementation modality of the ICP V, entailing a significant role for LuxDev, which currently manages EUR 106,3 million of bilateral development assistance.

Development assistance activities in Vietnam no longer falls within the framework of an active ICP as the latter has demonstrated significant progress, reaching Middle Income Country status in 2010. The last ICP (2011-2015) between the Governments of Luxembourg and Vietnam phased out in 2015. Since then, individual agreements and protocols have been agreed for the implementation of bilateral projects.

LuxDev maintains a branch office in Hanoi to manage its ongoing interventions and support the transition from supporting poverty alleviation to economic development. LuxDev continued to provide support towards the banking and finance sector, climate change, adaptation and mitigation efforts, the latter funded by the Luxembourg Ministry for Environment, Climate and Biodiversity, via the Climate and Energy Fund. Most recently, the Luxembourg Development Cooperation approved a new intervention in fostering climate-smart agriculture and financial inclusion, and the Green Climate Fund entrusted a new project to LuxDev to sustain Climate adaptation and resilience in Thua Thien Hue Province.

For more specific information on activities implemented by LuxDev in the region, please consult the relevant pages dedicated to the programmes and projects managed by the Asia office.