Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has just approved the basic contents of a joint project on increasing goods transport between Vietnam and Laos , which were proposed by the Ministry of Transport.

The project outlines solutions to facilitate the movement of land vehicles between the two countries, helping improve the efficiency of trans-national and transit transport of goods and make full use of the current road networks of the two countries.

It is hoped that the project will help to raise two-way trade to 2 billion USD in 2015 and 5 billion USD in 2020, as well as increasing import-export turnover of the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) countries and attracting more goods from Laos transiting Vietnam for export and vice versa.

Vietnam and Laos have seen their transport cooperation expanding since they signed an agreement facilitating cross-border road transport in 2009 and a protocol to implement the deal in 2010.

The two countries are also members of a multilateral agreement on facilitating cross border transport of passengers and goods among the Mekong subregion nations.-VNA