Officials from the central province of Thua Thien-Hue and southern Sekong province of Laos met for talks in Hue city on August 10 to enhance bilateral cooperation in economics, culture, security and defence.

Both sides agreed to continue with efforts to carry out the plan on building more markers along their shared border and encourage twinning relationship between hamlets across the border in order to build a border region of solidarity, stability and development.

They also planned to work together to deal with the problems of unplanned migration and unlicensed marriage.

Thua Thien-Hue province pledged to provide 10 scholarships for students from Sekong to pursue post graduate training in Vietnam in the 2014-2015 academic year.

During the talks, the two provinces also updated each other on their political and socio-economic situations, as well as reviewed the results of collaborative activities in the past period.

They were pleased at the implementation of agreements at both governmental and provincial levels on cooperation on crime combat, border management and demarcation and search for remains of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers who were killed in Laos during wartime.

Thua Thien-Hue has also supported the Lao neighbouring province by providing farming skill training and free medical check-ups for disadvantaged people. Most recently, it provided Sekong province with 7.31 billion VND (345,000 USD) in non-refundable aid to build the Xe Ron bridge in Ka Lum district.-VNA