Tag: Laos

  • Laos Adopts Plain Packaging

    Laos Adopts Plain Packaging

    Image: alexlmx

    Laos will require cigarette manufacturers to sell their products in generic packaging starting Dec. 5, 2024. The new law restricts the use of logos, colors, brand images or promotional information on tobacco product packages. Only brand names and product names are allowed, displayed in a uniform color and style.

    “This is significant progress when it comes to saving lives and safeguarding health against the harms of tobacco promotion and use,” said Saia Ma’u Piukala, director of the World Health Organization’s regional office for the western Pacific, in a statement. “This milestone builds on Laos’ complete ban on tobacco advertisement, promotion and sponsorship and world-leading 2021 ban of e-cigarettes and similar products.”

    Laos spends an estimated LAK3.6 billion ($162.35 million), or 2.3 percent of its gross domestic product, annually treating smoking-related illnesses, according to the WHO.

    “This is a commendable step toward protecting public health from tobacco, but there is further work to be done,” said Timothy Armstrong, WHO representative to Laos. “Each year sees more than 6,700 people in Laos—more than 17 per day—lose their lives due to tobacco use.

    “The most impactful action is to increase tobacco taxes and make tobacco products less affordable. Currently, Laos has the lowest tobacco tax rate in the ASEAN region. Increasing tobacco taxes, and removing tax exemptions for tobacco companies, will save lives and generate millions of dollars for development priorities.”

    According to the WHO, plain packaging eliminates tobacco packaging as a promotional tool and prevents the use of misleading design techniques that suggest some products are less harmful.

    “The benefits of health warnings are numerous,” said WHO Laos tobacco control expert Douangkeo Thochongliachi. “They remind smokers and non-smokers about the harmful effects of tobacco; a regular smoker sees a warning message thousands of times per year. Plain packaging reinforces this by making health warnings even more prominent.”

  • World Bank Urges Laos to Increase Taxes

    World Bank Urges Laos to Increase Taxes

    Image: Skórzewiak

    The World Bank has urged Laos to raise its value-added tax rate and increase taxes on cigarettes and alcohol to help address high inflation and currency depreciation, according to Radio Free Asia.

    Alex Kremer, the World Bank’s representative in Laos, said in a report last month that the government should spend more money on healthcare and education to set a foundation for future development.

    Laos’ economy has struggled with rapidly rising prices, low foreign investment and public debt that could increase to 125 percent of GDP in 2024. The country’s debt reached $18.7 billion by the end of 2022. Over half the debt is owed to China.

    Kremer said the debt has destabilized the country’s macroeconomy and slowed economic growth.

  • Graphic health warnings

    Graphic health warnings

    Laos’ Ministry of Health has said that, as of May 1, all domestic and imported cigarette packs must carry graphic health warnings ‘covering 75 percent of the packaging’, according to a Xinhua News Agency report.

    “If we find violations of this regulation, the violators will be warned, have their products seized, fined or have their business license suspended,” Phat Keungsaneth, head of the Secretariat to the National Tobacco Control Committee, said yesterday.

    “We expect that in three months, cigarette products circulated in the market that are yet to be labeled with health warnings will disappear and [be] replaced with those with pictorial warnings affixed on the packaging.”

    Phat said other countries that had signed the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control had introduced such warnings.

    The move would promote public awareness of health hazards and the menace of smoking cigarettes and inhaling second-hand smoke.

    “These efforts will help the government inspect and prevent smuggled cigarettes and promote health protection among the general public, especially from non-communicable diseases,” Phat reportedly told the Lao News Agency.