Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien (left) and his Lao counterpart Khampheng Xaysompheng meet in Vientiane on August 9. (Photo: VNA)In the meeting between Vietnamese Minister of Industryand Trade Nguyen Hong Dien and his Lao counterpart Khampheng Xaysompheng, bothsides expressed their delight at the recovery of the two-way trade in the firsthalf of 2021, laying solid foundation for lifting the trade growth to 10percent this year as planned by the two governments.
They agreed to accelerate talks to soon conclude aprotocol amending the 2015 Vietnam-Laos trade agreement which is expected to beinked this year. They will also urge relevant agencies from both sides to fullyimplement the commitments of the bilateral border trade agreement.
Dien emphasised the importance of the construction of anexpressway connecting Hanoi and Vientiane, saying it would form a basis for hisministry to encourage and support more Vietnamese enterprises to invest in Laosto make the most of the two nations’ potential for cooperation.
He later took the occasion to invite Lao Minister ofIndustry and Commerce Khampheng Xaysompheng to visit Vietnam at the earliestconvenience and suggest the two countries hold a joint conference for cooperationin and development of industry and trade, and energy and mining in Vietnam.
Vietnamese Minister of Justice Le Thanh Long (left) meets with his Lao counterpart Phaivy Siboualipha. (Photo: VNA) Minister Long, for his part, proposed the two sides further deepen judicial ties via the periodic judicial conference between theirborder-sharing provinces and exchanges of delegations, documents and legalpapers.
He also asked his host to speed up the granting of Laocitizenship to eligible Vietnamese people under the bilateral agreement on settlementof free migration and to jointly launch talks on an agreement on mutual legalassistance in civil matters./.
VNA
