Vietnam ’s Vinh Phuc province and the Lao province of Luang Namtha need to expand bilateral cooperation to boost socio-economic development, the Lao government leader said.

Lao Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh made the request while receiving a delegation from Vinh Phuc province, headed by Secretary of the provincial Party Committee Trinh Dinh Dung, in the capital of Vientiane on Jan. 15.

Dung informed PM Bouphavanh of the outcomes of the delegation’s visit to Luang Namtha, as well as the two provinces’ recent cooperation results and plans for the years to come.

As twinned provinces, Vinh Phuc has donated money to help Luang Namtha build schools, including a political school to the tune of 500,000 USD. It has annually granted scholarships to 15 Lao students for studying at Vietnamese universities and colleges.

Vinh Phuc also provided the Lao province with 1 million USD to finance the construction of a friendship culture palace that was inaugurated on Jan. 12.

Additionally, Vinh Phuc has established cooperative ties with the Lao northern provinces of Udomxay and Phongsaly. It already gave each of them 100,000 USD to build schools and assisted a number of students from the provinces to pursue study in Vietnam./.