Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his Lao counterpart Somsavat Lengsavad on December 19 signed a Vietnam-Laos partnership agreement for the year 2013.

This was one of the outcomes of the 35 th meeting of the Vietnam-Laos Inter-governmental Committee for Economics, Culture, and Science and Technology Cooperation held in the northern province of Vinh Phuc.

During the meeting, both sides discussed a number of fields, including education and training, culture, science and technology, mining, energy and investment.

Under the terms of the economic partnership, both sides agreed to review the activities of Vietnamese investors in Laos and to create favourable conditions to implement investment projects and take punitive measures against enterprises which failed to deliver on promises.

The two sides requested enterprises involved in the hydro-power plant, Sekaman 3 to speed up progress so that commercial operations could be started soon.

They also targeted an increase of 25 percent in two-way trade turnover next year.

Both sides agreed to continue preferential taxation treatment for goods made in each country.

They also paid attention to building a stable border line and completing border demarcation in 2014./.VNA