Ho Chi Minh City held a meeting on July 17 to mark 35 years of the
signing of the Vietnam-Laos Friendship and Cooperation Treaty and the 50
th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
Attending the event were former President Nguyen Minh Triet; Party
Politburo member and Secretary of the HCM City Party Committee Le Thanh
Hai; Lao Party Politburo member, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign
Minister Thongloun Sisoulith; and Secretary of the Lao Party Central
Committee, Secretary of the Party Committee and Mayor of Vientiane
Soukan Mahalath.
Speaking at the ceremony, Hai
said that the Vietnam-Laos, Laos-Vietnam traditional friendship, special
solidarity and comprehensive cooperation are an invaluable asset of the
two nations fostered by President Ho Chi Minh, President Kaysone
Phomvihane and President Souphanouvong as well as generations of
Vietnamese and Lao leaders and people.
Together
with the ceaseless development of the Vietnam-Laos relations, HCM
City has carried out many activities to strengthen and deepen its
friendship and cooperation with Lao localities, especially the capital
city of Vientiane and Champassak province, he said.
Soukan Mahalath affirmed that despite changes in the region and the
world, the special relationship between Laos and Vietnam has
continuously progressed in all aspects, bringing interests to both
nations.
The Lao Party, Government and people
always preserve the special friendship and solidarity between the two
countries and will do their utmost to strengthen cooperation between the
two Parties and States in general and between Vientiane, Champassak
and HCM City in particular.
On the occasion,
Thongloun Sisoulith presented the Lao State’s Freedom Order,
second class, to the HCM City People’s Council and People’s Committee
and three individuals.
On the same day, the Lao
and HCM City delegations attended the opening ceremony of an
exhibition celebrating the Vietnam-Laos Friendship Year 2012, themed
“Sustainable Development of Vietnam-Laos, HCM City-Vientiane-Champassak
Friendship”.
Earlier, former President Triet received the Lao delegation, led by Thongloun Sisoulith.
On July 16, a seminar was held in HCM City to promote trade and
investment in Laos’ Vientiane capital city and Champassak
province.
Speaking at the event, Thongloun Sisoulith highly valued Vietnam’s investment, which he described as an
important contribution to the development of Laos , especially
Vientiane and Champassak.
He suggested the two
sides strengthen examination of cooperative projects as well as discuss
measures to perfect investment policies and mechanisms.
The Vientiane leaders expressed the wish that businesses of
Vietnam in general and of HCM City in particular will continue
investing in Laos, especially in the areas of railway, expressway,
airport, 500KW power transmission lines, processing industry and
tourism.
The Champassak leaders called on HCM
City companies to come to study business and investment opportunities
in the province. They vowed to create favourable conditions for the
businesses to operate in Champassak.
Two-way trade
between Vietnam and Laos reached 734 million USD in 2011, an
increase of nearly 50 percent over the previous year. The figure was
135.8 million USD in the first quarter of this year, representing a
year-on-year rise of over 66 percent.
The two
countries set a target of bringing bilateral trade to 1 billion USD in
2012, 2 billion USD in 2015 and 5 billion USD in 2020.
At present, Vietnam is the second largest investor in Laos with 424 projects worth 3.57 billion USD.-VNA