Handover Ceremony and 7th and Final Joint Coordinating Committee, held under JICA’s Project for Capacity Development on Bridge Maintenance and Management

Vientiane Capital, 18^th March, 2024 – Vice Minister of Public Works and Transport, officials from Department of Roads (DOR), Public Works and Transport Institute (PTI) and Department of Public Works and Transport (DPWT) as well as lecturers from National University of Laos (NUOL) joined together for the Handover Ceremony and 7th and Final Joint Coordinating Committee, held under the JICA supported Project for Capacity Development on Bridge Maintenance and Management (JICA-BMM)

JICA has been playing a key role in improving the road network in Lao PDR. Recently, JICA has successfully delivered assistance to a number of projects in infrastructure sector such as Project for Improvement of National Road No.9 in East-West Economic Corridor of the Mekong Region (Grant agreement signed in 2011), the Project for Construction of Sekong Bridge on NR 16B in the Southern Region of Laos (Grant agreement signed in 2014), and the Reconstruction of the Bridges on National Road No.9 (Grant agreement signed in 2016). These road asset infrastructure projects significantly contribute to strengthening connectivity with neighboring countries, achieving balanced regional economic growth, and facilitating cross-border trade, which are among the priority development strategies stipulated in the Lao National Socio-Economic Development Plan.

In addition to the support to improve those road asset infrastructure, JICA’s assistance in the road asset management has been also channeling to the Technical Assistance to improve the capacity to maintain and manage said road asset infrastructure to make the effective use of them and maximize the social and economic benefits derived from well maintained and managed infrastructure. JICA commenced the Project for Capacity Development on Bridge Maintenance and Management (JICA-BMM) in November 2020 and will complete the Project by April 2024.

The goal of the JICA-BMM project is to deliver the improved capacity to maintain and manage the bridges on the National Roads and to accomplish this, a counterpart team comprised of officials from DOR, PTI and DPWTs of Vientiane, Savannakhet and Champasak provinces has been working closely with the JICA Expert Team to improve (i) bridge inspection and diagnosis capacity, (ii) bridge repair and maintenance capacity and (iii) operation and management capacity of Bridge Management System (BMS) and (iv) capacity for bridge maintenance planning . In the course of the JICA-BMM project, the counterparts and JICA Expert Team delivered (i) Bridge Inspection and Diagnosis Manual, (ii) Bridge Repair and Retrofitting Manual, (iii) Bridge Management System and (iv) Joint trainings  for 151 staff from DPWT/OPWT as bridge inspectors across the country.

 As part of the JICA-BMM project activities , Public-Private-Academia collaboration has been practiced in the form of (i) introduction and application of Japanese technologies for bridge maintenance and management, and (ii) networking among Japanese and Lao public and academic institutions.  The notable achievement in the Public-Private-Academia collaboration is successfully organizing 1^st and 2^nd Laos-Japan Joint Seminars on “Road Asset Management” to share knowledge and experience between Laos and Japan for further development of civil engineering in both countries. Other achievements include (i) provision of special lecture by Japanese professionals at the Faculty of Engineering, NUOL and (ii) participation in academic conferences by the counterparts including submission of the academic papers.

During the Handover Ceremony, JICA officially handed over the bridge inspection tools and equipment including one unit of bridge inspection patrol vehicle and UAV (Drone). Dr. Tsuyoshi Yamamoto, Senior Representative of JICA and Mr. Sysouphanh CHANSAVAT, Acting Director General of DOR exchanged the Deed of Donation in the presence of Mr. Litta KHATTIYA Vice Minister of Public Works and Transport as a witness.

After the Hanover Ceremony, the counterparts and JICA Expert Team continued to demonstrate the achievement of the JICA-BMM project in the 7^th and Final JCC. Two parties also agreed upon (i) continuous periodic bridge inspection by DPWT/OPWT staffs under supervision of the DOR, (ii) operation and maintenance of BMS developed under JICA-BMM and preparation of a maintenance revenue/expenditure plan from long- and mid-term bridge repair needs, (iii) securing annual bridge repair and maintenance budget in a proactive manner, and (iv) continued Public-Private-Academia collaboration for sustainable bridge management.