On 20 July, Lao Bullion Bank (LBB) and MKS PAMP (Hong Kong) signed an agreement to cooperate on precious metals trading and connect Laos to international bullion markets.
Chanthone Sitthixay, CEO of LBB, and Damien Han, Head of Sales for Asia Pacific at MKS PAMP (Hong Kong), signed the agreement in Vientiane. Santiphap Phomvihane, Lao Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, and The Honorable Christopher Hui, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, attended the ceremony.
The two sides signed the MoU alongside a separate government-to-government agreement between the Lao Ministry of Finance and Hong Kong’s Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau on financial cooperation.
The agreement covers trading, refining, product distribution, technical cooperation, and knowledge exchange. It also allows both organisations to explore collaboration with the Laos-International Precious Metals Refinery (LIPMER), a facility central to Laos’ push to build out its domestic precious metals processing capacity.
MKS PAMP joined Shanghai Gold Exchange International as a founding participant in 2014. It has since taken part in regional milestones, including the first trade in SGE Hong Kong Contracts in 2025 and, in 2026, some of the earliest transactions through Hong Kong Precious Metals Central Clearing, among them one of the first HAU gold trades.
Han said the MoU comes at an important moment for financial cooperation between Laos and Hong Kong. He added that the framework would let both parties pursue cooperation linking Laos’ market development with international precious metals expertise and market practices.
LBB gave no timeline for implementing the cooperation areas the MoU outlines, and neither side disclosed financial terms.
The agreement builds on Laos’ broader effort to position itself in the regional precious metals trade, following the establishment of LIPMER and LBB’s own role in overseeing the sector domestically.
MKS PAMP trades, refines, and mints gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and other platinum group metals, and runs a refinery and mint in Switzerland. The LBMA and the LPPM both approve it as a Good Delivery Referee, one of three organizations worldwide with that status.
