The State Records Management and Archives Department of Vietnam and the National Archives Department of Laos have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on their cooperation plan in 2013.

The signing of the MOU on October 24 in Vientiane is a part of a host of activities to respond to the Vietnam-Laos Friendship and Solidarity Year 2012.

Under the document, the two departments will jointly establish and exchange archives indexes relating to history of Vietnam and Laos.

The two sides will continue sharing experience in archives and records management via exchanges of documents and experts at jointly-held conferences and symposiums.

In addition, Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training will provide long and short-term training courses to the staff of the Lao archives agency.

The ministry will offer assistance under the form of non-refundable aid of the Vietnamese government to help Laos carry out a project on a national archive insurance center located at the northern Luang Prabang province.

In the past years, the two agencies, as members of the International Council on Archives and its branch in Southeast Asia, have been closely coordinating at the regional and international forums.-VNA