Vietnam PM meets with Lao, Cambodian leaders

10/12/2009

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung met with leaders of Laos and Cambodia in Vientiane on Dec. 9 before he attended the opening ceremony of the 25th Southeast Asian Games there.

During a meeting with the Lao Party General Secretary and State President, Choummaly Sayasone, PM Dung wished SEA Games 25 a success and said Vietnam already did and will do its utmost to help Laos successfully host the sporting event.

Lao President Choummaly Sayasone (R) receives Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in Vientiane Dec. 9, 2009 (Photo: Vietnam News Agency)

Vietnam attaches great importance and gives priority to developing special friendship, solidarity and comprehensive cooperation with Laos, said PM Dung, who has been in Laos as a guest of his Lao counterpart, Bouasone Bouphavanh.

He proposed the Lao government to continue creating favorable conditions for Vietnamese companies to invest in the fields of transport, energy, finance and banking on the basis of mutual benefit.

The PM congratulated Laos on its 34th National Day as well as achievements it reaped in recent years, especially in 2009 when the country maintained political stability, high economic growth, expanding foreign relations and improved its position in the region and the international arena.

Party General Secretary Sayasone thanked Vietnam for assisting Laos in hosting SEA Games 25, describing it as evidence of the Vietnam-Laos special solidarity and between Southeast Asian nations.

The Laos leader said he was delighted at the progress in bilateral economic, trade and investment ties, and stressed that the flow of Vietnamese investment created a momentum to foster Laos’s economic development.

At the talks with Lao PM Bouphavanh, the two prime ministers agreed that their respective countries hold huge potentials for further cooperation, particularly in hydroelectricity, mining, transport, industrial crops growing and processing.

Despite the impacts of the global financial-economic crisis, this year’s two-way trade forecasts to be kept at the same level of 423 million USD as last year.

Vietnam has emerged as one of the largest foreign investors in Laos with 48 projects totaling 1.4 billion USD licensed in 2009 alone, the prime ministers noted.

PM Dung thanked the Lao government for 1,000 cu.m of wood it granted to residents in Vietnam’s central region, who were heavily affected by typhoon Ketsana.

For his part, PM Bouphavanh affirmed that the Lao government will try its best to step up cooperative relations between the two nations.

PM Bouphavanh thanked Vietnam for its support during the SEA Games 25 and expressed his belief that the Vietnamese athletes will bring home many medals from the event.

While receiving President of the Lao Front for National Construction Sisavat Keobounphan, PM Dung spoke highly of Keobounphan’s role in developing the Laos front and believed that Laos will fulfill this year’s socio-economic targets.

Keobounphan said exchanges and seminars held in recent years contributed greatly to improving public awareness of the valuable heritage of the loyal relationship between Vietnam and Laos.

Also on Dec. 9, PM Nguyen Tan Dung met with his Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen to discuss ways of further promoting bilateral ties, especially in the areas of economics, trade and investment.

PM Dung thanked the Cambodian government for its creation of favorable conditions for Vietnamese enterprises to make successful investments in aviation, banking, telecoms and agriculture.

He applauded progress in the two countries’ border demarcation and marker planting towards the completion of the job in 2012 as agreed upon by senior leaders of Vietnam and Cambodia.

As neighbors and Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) members, Vietnam wants to join hands with Cambodia to enhance cooperation in all spheres, especially in economics, trade and investment for development in each country and the whole region, PM Dung said.

PM Hun Sen noted with pleasure promising results in bilateral cooperation as well as the increasing flow of Vietnamese investment in Cambodia.

The Cambodian leader lauded effective cooperation in aviation, telecoms and energy and pledged to continue facilitating Vietnamese firms’ business activities in Cambodia.

Source: Vietnam News Agency