Joint Vietnam-Laos committee sees new prospects for bilateral ties

At the session held from January 6-11, both parties recognized many strategic targets that the two governments have agreed on for the 2006-2009 period.

Cooperation in training up human resources has been prioritized and expanded in many forms. In the 2008-2009 academic year, Vietnam received 690 cadres and students from Laos and sent more than 430 of their Vietnamese counterparts to Laos.

Both countries have also focused on building a peaceful and friendly border for long-term development. Under the previous agreements, Vietnam and Laos have upgraded and increased the amount of border markers between the two countries. In addition, they have opened or upgraded their border gates to meet people’s increasing demand for travel and trade.

Two-way trade revenues have risen gradually and steadily over the years by some 30-40 percent annually. Vietnamese businesses have carried out many large-scale investment projects in Laos, giving a boost to economic development in each country. By September 2009, the Lao government had licensed 207 Vietnamese investment projects with a total capitalization of more than US$2.1 billion.

At the session, Vietnam and Laos agreed to take the next steps toward applying a system of checking goods and transport in the form of ‘one stop shop’ at the International Lao Bao- Densana Border Gate.

They also confirmed their determination to develop their traditional ties of friendship, special unity and comprehensive cooperation in the future and go ahead with six programmes set out in the Cooperation Agreement between the two governments for the 2006-2010 period.

New agreement signed

On behalf of their respective governments, the Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung and his Lao counterpart Somsavat Lengsavad signed a new agreement on bilateral cooperation in the fields of economics, culture, and technology.

Accordingly, Vietnam and Laos will continue to boost bilateral cooperation in a wide range of areas such as development capital, enhancing human resources training and developing the border regions, agriculture and forestry, seafood, natural resources, environment, culture, tourism, communications and health care.

Both countries will go ahead with their 2008-2015 plan for trade development, which targets US$1 billion in revenue from two-way trade by 2010 and US$2 billion by2015.

Laos has pledged to encourage and give priority to Vietnamese businesses that invest in manufacturing and processing products for export, and building up the infrastructure of the Densana trade centre in the province of Sanakhet and other border gate areas. The best possible conditions will also be offered to the businesses that invest in constructing Vietnamese trade centres in Laos and Lao trade centres in Vietnam and developing Vietnamese urban areas in the Lao capital of Vientiane as well as in its Luang Prabang and Savanakhet provinces.

The 33^rd intergovernmental committee meeting is scheduled to take place in Vietnam in early 2011./.