Laos pledges to promote Vietnamese investment projects

Addressing the conference that was also attended by Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Siphandone noted that the Lao government has recently focused on perfecting institutions, including investment incentive policies, alongside developing plans, including those for 12 economic zones and industrial parks nationwide.

The Laos government has asked ministries and agencies to continue supplementing appropriate investment incentive policies for each period, and at the same time, to listen to and solve difficulties for businesses.

He highly appreciated Vietnamese businesses-invested projects in Laos, contributing to stimulating development, realizing socio-economic goals and building an independent and self-reliant economy in Laos.

He called on Vietnamese businesses to continue to learn and invest in areas where Laos has strengths such as clean agriculture, agricultural product processing, minerals, and clean energy, among others.

Statistics show Vietnam currently has 241 investment projects in Laos with a total registered capital of US$5.47 billion, retaining its third position among foreign investors in the country. However, the gains are not commensurate with the potential and good relations between the two countries.

Taking the floor, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh highly appreciated the recorded gains, but said economic and investment cooperation between the two countries needs to have a breakthrough in the coming time. He suggested promoting public-private cooperation to develop infrastructure and connect the two economies, including investing in the construction of highways, railways, and aviation routes linking the two countries.

Chinh emphasized the importance of creating a breakthrough in developing high-quality human resources, considering this a key task in the relationship between the two countries in the coming time. He also suggested promoting cooperation in priority areas such as high-tech industry, innovation, energy, mining, high-tech agriculture, and e-commerce, among others.

According to the Vietnamese leader, Laos has abundant raw material resources, while Vietnamese businesses have processing capacity. In addition, Vietnam has a large market with 15 signed Free Trade Agreements (FTA), which can help Lao commodities to make inroads into this lucrative market.

The head of the Vietnamese Government requested that ministries, agencies, localities and businesses of both sides coordinate and resolve outstanding projects and remaining problems to facilitate investment flows.

The success of investment cooperation programmes and projects strengthens political trust, contributing to socio-economic development, bringing a happy and prosperous life for the people of each country, while helping to consolidate and strengthen the great friendship, special and rare solidarity between Vietnam and Laos, said Chinh.

At the conference, the two sides introduced theỉr environment climate and investment attraction policies, reviewed investment and business cooperation results recorded in recent years, and examined the direction of investment cooperation between the two countries in the coming time. They also discussed some problems faced by the Vietnamese business community in Laos that need to be addressed.

The two PMs then witnessed the ceremony of awarding investment certificates and exchanging investment cooperation documents between agencies, investors, and businesses of the two countries in various fields such as finance, agriculture, and mineral exploitation.