Vietnam and Laos have agreed to boost bilateral trade to 2 billion USD by 2015.

The target was set during a meeting between Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Thanh Bien and his Lao counter part Khemmani Pholsena, in the Lao capital city of Vientiane on August 5.

The two sides agreed to boost coordination with relevant ministries and branches to organise trade fairs in Laos in 2011 and the coming years, while holding conferences in several localities of Laos to link two countries’ businesses.

They will continue granting tax incentives to their businesses and consider the expansion of the list of goods benefiting from tax incentives and implement projects on border trade development.

In 2010, two-way trade between Vietnam and Laos reached 490 million USD, up 17.2 percent over 2009. In the first half of this year, the figure stood at 349.8 million USD, a year-on-year increase of 65.8 percent./.