Signing of Vietnam-Laos Cooperation Agreement in 2013

On December 19, at the end of the 35th meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee on economic, cultural, educational and scientific-technical cooperation between Vietnam and Laos, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Lao Deputy Prime Minister Somsavat Lengsavad signed the 2013 Vietnam-Laos Cooperation Agreement.

Illustrative photo. (Source: VNA)

The two sides also signed an agreement on cooperation strategy between Vietnam and Laos in the two provinces of Hua Phan and Xieng Khouang until 2020; a protocol on amending the Vietnam-Laos Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement.

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc highly appreciated the working results of the delegations of Vietnam and Laos during the meeting; he hoped that organizations and businesses of the two countries would frankly point out the limitations and difficulties to overcome.

The Deputy Prime Minister also gave a preliminary report on Vietnam's socio-economic situation, advantages and difficulties in development in general and mainly in 2012.
The Lao side also appreciated the importance of the meeting and gave a preliminary report on the socio-economic situation of their country.

The two sides discussed cooperation in many fields such as education and training, culture, science and technology, mineral exploitation, energy, investment and development in general...

Members of the Vietnam-Laos and Laos-Vietnam cooperation subcommittees approved the agenda of the meeting, assessed the implementation of the Agreement on economic, cultural, educational and scientific-technical cooperation in 2012, and discussed and agreed on specific tasks and directions in 2013.

Currently, Vietnam has hundreds of projects granted investment certificates in Laos that are still valid. In 2011 alone, Vietnam had 15 projects granted investment certificates in Laos with a total registered capital of 477.4 million USD.

In 2013, the Vietnamese Government will award 825 scholarships to Lao officials and students, prioritizing training and fostering of political officials and managers at all levels.

In particular, in the economic field, the parties continue to review enterprises investing in Laos in the direction of creating favorable conditions for implementing cooperation projects, resolutely handling enterprises that do not properly implement contracts and commitments with the Lao Government, and promptly coordinating to handle newly arising issues.

The two sides requested relevant enterprises to speed up the progress to soon generate commercial electricity at the Sekaman 3 hydropower plant; promote the progress of the Sekaman 1 hydropower project; and strive to increase the import-export turnover between the two countries in 2013 to a growth rate of 25%.

At the same time, preferential tax and import tax policies will continue to be applied to goods originating from the two countries. The two sides will also continue to cooperate closely in the fields of culture, sports, tourism, information and communication, museums, science and technology, etc.

In terms of politics and diplomacy, the two sides will include the content of historical works on the special relationship and the Vietnam-Laos fighting alliance in teaching at schools in the two countries.

The two sides also focus on building a stable and comprehensively developed Vietnam-Laos border, replicating the joint patrol cooperation model of the border guards along the entire border, striving to basically complete the increase and renovation of the Vietnam-Laos border marker system in 2013 to complete this project in 2014.

According to (TTXVN) - LT