Vietnamese and Laos officials in charge of labour and social welfare issues gathered in the northern Lao province of Xieng Khouang on May 24 for the second Vietnam-Laos ministerial meeting on labour cooperation.

The meeting was an opportunity for both sides to share experiences since the first meeting in the Vietnamese central city of Da Nang in 2009 and discuss mechanisms on labour and ways to improve labour management and investment effectiveness in the context of both countries’ increasing cooperation and investment, said Lao Minister of Labour and Social Welfares Onnecchanh Thammavong.

Vietnamese Minister of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan said the event marked a new cooperative step in the field of labour and social welfare between the two countries, as well as the two ministries.

Through the meeting, the two sides would discuss concrete contents for cooperation in state management, contributing to implementing commitments made by the two countries’ leaders, according to Ngan.

The meeting focused on reviewing results from cooperative labour programmes over the past two years and discussed future strategies. Both sides planned to focus bilateral cooperation on policies toward jobs, vocational training, unemployment insurance, overseas labour management and labour export.

In addition, the meeting dealt with priorities and measures to continue implementing bilateral programmes in vocational training and devising skill standards.

Vietnam and Laos have seen strong development in bilateral investment cooperation. Vietnam now runs 248 investment projects with a total registered capital of 3.1 billion USD in Laos, mainly in electricity, mining, agriculture and services./.