VietNamNet Bridge – The two sub-committees of the Vietnam-Laos Committee for Cooperation have met in Savannakhet Province, Laos, to review the implementation of cooperation programmes in the first half of 2008 and discuss ties in coming time.
At their 30th Mid-term Conference held on July 19-20, the Vietnamese and Lao officials said cooperation projects are going as scheduled, which is remarkable in the context of the great fluctuations in the prices of crude oil, food, fuel and materials.
Two-way trade turnover reached 192 million USD in the year’s first five months and is estimated at 240 million USD for the past six months, up 58 percent year on year.
By mid-June 2008, Vietnam had 109 investment projects capitalised at 1.07 billion USD licensed to operate in Laos.
The use of Vietnam ’s aid to Laos was an important issue on the meeting’s agenda.
Vietnam has pledged to grant 900 billion VND (54.5 million USD) in aid to the neighbouring country in the 2006-2010, including 230 billion VND for 2008 alone. Of the figure, 100 billion VND is set aside for training Lao students in Vietnam, and 130 billion VND for other projects.
The officials agreed to work hard to remove difficulties in administrative procedures for aid approval and use, investment licensing and trade.
They agreed to assign the two countries’ ministries of planning and investment to assess Vietnamese businesses’ projects in Laos in order to build a proper investment mechanism to be submitted to the two governments for approval.
They also agreed on the need to establish an inter-agency mission for supervising the implementation of the 2007 Hanoi Agreement.
The Vietnamese delegation to the 30th mid-term conference was led by Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment and Deputy President of the Vietnam-Laos Sub-committee Truong Van Doan while the Lao delegation was head by his counterpart Thongmy Phomvixay.