Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính (right) and his Lao counterpart Sonexay Siphandone co-chair the Việt Nam-Laos investment cooperation conference. — VNA/VNS Photo Dương Giang

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính and his Lao counterpart Sonexay Siphandone co-chaired a Việt Nam-Laos investment cooperation conference in Hà Nội on Sunday, as part of the latter's ongoing visit to Việt Nam.

Along with highlighting the investment environment and incentives for investors of Việt Nam and Laos, participants evaluated bilateral investment and business cooperation over the years, and sketched out collaboration orientations for the future.

Vietnamese investors in Laos pointed out obstacles facing them and proposed solutions.

Currently, Việt Nam is investing in 241 projects in Laos with a combined capital of US$5.47 billion.

PM Sonexay noted opinions and proposals by investors, affirming that the growth of Vietnamese investment in Laos has encouraged the development and implementation of socio-economic targets of Laos as well as the country's efforts to achieve an independent and self-reliant economy.

He held that the two Governments, business communities, and peoples should continue working hard together to make new breakthroughs, implement new projects and specify agreements reached between the two Parties, thus making the bilateral ties deeper, more substantial and effective.

The Lao leader said that the Government had focused on building and completing institutions, including policies to encourage investment, while redesigning their planning, including for 12 economic zones and industrial parks across the country.

It had ordered ministries and sectors to continue researching and supplementing policies to call for investment in particular periods, and to listen to the voices of enterprises to deal with their difficulties, he said.

PM Sonexay said he hoped Vietnamese firms would continue to invest in areas of Laos’ strengths such as clean agriculture, agricultural processing, mining and clean energy.

This year, Lao would be taking the role of the ASEAN Chair, he said, expressing his hope for support from Việt Nam in general and the Vietnamese business community in particular

Laos hoped to welcome more Vietnamese visitors, especially in the Lao Tourism Year 2024, he stated.

PM Chính highlighted the all-round development in the Việt Nam-Laos great friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation, including economic and investment collaboration.

He said that the two sides should make a breakthrough in bilateral economic and investment cooperation, strengthening public-private partnerships to expand infrastructure systems, fostering connections between the two economies by developing expressways, railways and air routes between the two countries, and building the infrastructure system linking border gates.

Breakthroughs were also needed in high quality human resources training, which should become a focal point in the bilateral relations in the future, said the Vietnamese leader.

He proposed that the two sides focus on prioritised areas such as high-tech industries, innovation, energy, mining, high-tech agriculture and e-commerce.

He asked ministries, sectors, localities and businesses of the two sides to coordinate closely in dealing with current problems to speed up projects and strengthen investment cooperation.

The two Governments should continue to complete institutions and policies, creating favourable legal frameworks, improving the investment environment, and speeding up administrative reform to reduce investment costs for businesses, while giving priorities to each other's businesses in the spirit of harmonious and shared interest.

PM Chính emphasised that each cooperation programme and project carries in-depth political meaning, showing bilateral political trust and contributing to the socio-economic development in each country and the growth of the Việt Nam-Laos special ties.

At the conference, PM Chính and PM Sonexay witnessed the granting of investment licences and the exchange of memoranda of understanding among agencies and businesses of the two countries across various fields, including finance, agriculture and mining.