On July 23, 2021, the Joint Venture of Asian Management and Development Institute (AMDI, lead firm), National Center for Water and Rural Environmental Sanitation (NCERWASS, member) and BMEC Engineering & Consulting Co., Ltd (BMEC, member) has signed a consulting contract to provide Technical Assistance for Project Management and Implementation for Scaling-Up Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Project - SWSSHP) worth 3.28 million USD with the Department of Water Supply (DWS), Ministry of Transport and Public Works, Lao PDR.
The SWSSH Project is an ODA project using IDA loans from the World Bank and under the management of Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MPWT), Lao PDR. The project implementation period is from 8/2019 to 3/2024 and total project cost of 25.4 million USD. MPWT is the lead project implementing agency, with a Project Management Unit (PMU) in the Department of Water Supply, and Project Implementation Units (PIUs) at the provincial and district offices. The other implementing agencies also include Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and Sports, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Ministry of Finance. The project will be implemented in 12 districts of 4 provinces namely Xiengkhuang, Huaphanh, Oudomxay and Phongsaly, Lao PDR.
The signed consulting service contract implemented by AMDI-NCERWASS-BMEC Joint Venture is under the procurement package No. C1/CS/07 with 32 man-months, starting from August 2021 to March 2024 with the aim of providing provided strategic technical assistance to the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, Government of the Lao People's Democratic Republic (GoL) in the implementation of the SWSSH Project. This support will include building capacity of GoL staff in participating ministries, provinces and districts and strengthening systems at all levels in order to sustain the gains beyond the end of the project. Of which, the Consulting Firm will provide implementation support through hard component (technical design, construction of 12 water schemes, water supply system maintenance and operation) and soft component (capacity building, behavior change (SBCC, CLTS) on water sanitation in hygiene practices for local people, schools, health center, etc.). Accordingly, the Consulting Firm will support the Project to ensure clean water supply for about 400 villages with total population of about 192,000 people, of which about 70% are ethnic minorities and 50% are women.
The newly signed consulting contract has shown the outstanding efforts of AMDI in the context of limited ODA projects with intensive competitive environment internationally and nationally. This is the second contract that AMDI signed with the Ministry of Transport and Public Works as the project implementation consultant. This affirmed the AMDI’s position in Laos’ market and contributed to the realization of the GOAL to become one of the leading consulting firms in providing education, training, consulting and research services in the Asia Region.