Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc is paying a working visit to Laos from December 9-10 at an invitation of his Lao counterpart Somsavat Lengsavad.

On December 9, he had a meeting with Lao Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong, during which he affirmed that Vietnam always treasures and gives the highest priority to consolidating and developing the Vietnam-Laos traditional friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation.

Appreciating the outcomes of bilateral collaboration in all fields, he affirmed Vietnam ’s wish to continue working with the Lao side to increase the efficiency of cooperation, especially in economy, trade, investment, and education-training.

The Vietnamese official also asked for Laos’ support at regional and international forums and for Vietnam ’s stance in the East Sea issue.

The Lao Government leader expressed his delight at rapid growth of two-way trade and hailed Vietnam as one of his country’s leading investor with its commitment to increasing official development assistance (ODA) by 30 percent for Laos in 2015.

He agreed to intensify collaboration in implementing joint projects on transport and energy.

Regarding the East Sea issue, PM Thongsing Thammavong reiterated Laos’ stand of calling for concerned parties to solve disputes by peaceful means in respect for international law, implement the Declaration of the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), and work towards the conclusion of a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).

On the same day, the Vietnamese Deputy PM held talks with his Lao counterpart, during which they reviewed the implementation of several cooperation agreements.

The two sides noted with pleasure that visits and meetings by high-ranking delegations were organised regularly while cooperation in economy, trade, investment, education, culture and science-technology saw positive progress.

In the first 10 months of 2014, two-way trade hit over 1 billion USD, up 34.5 percent against the same period last year.

Vietnam remained one of the two biggest investors in Laos with a total registered capital of about 5 billion USD, of which 1 billion USD was disbursed.

The two Deputy PMs spoke highly of the implementation of a master plan on increasing and upgrading the border marker system and a government-level agreement on addressing illegal migration and illegitimate marriage in the shared border areas.

They agreed to officially implement the one stop shop model at the Lao Bao-Densavan international border gates from January 1, 2015.

They also discussed and agreed on measures to prepare for the upcoming 37th meeting of the inter-governmental committee, with the focus on speeding up key transport and energy projects and increasing the efficiency of Vietnam ’s investment projects in Laos and cooperation in education-training, security, defence, banking, telecommunications and farm produce processing.

Both host and guest reached a consensus on accelerating negotiations on a new trade agreement between the two countries and working with each other to effectively carry out a cooperation strategy in Laos’ Houaphan and Xiengkhouang provinces.

VNA/VNN