HCM City gives top priority to cooperation with Lao localities: official

Hanoi (VNA) – The cooperation with Savannakhet province and other localities of Laos is always the highest priority of Ho Chi Minh City’s relations with foreign localities, Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Phan Van Mai said while visiting the Lao province on April 9.

Mai, who is also a member of the Party Central Committee and Standing Vice Secretary of the HCM City Party Committee, made the remark during a meeting on April 9 with Bounchom Ubonpaseuth, a member of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) Central Committee, Secretary of the LPRP Committee of Savannakhet, and Governor of the province – one of the three Lao units paired with HCM City.

Ubonpaseuth highly valued the close cooperation in multiple spheres between the two localities and thanked HCM City for assisting his province to build a teleconference room and coordinating to successfully hold activities of the Vietnam - Laos and Laos - Vietnam Solidarity and Friendship Year 2022.

He introduced the five relic sites of leaders in Savannakhet, including the one of late Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh, noting that it holds great significance and his province hopes to develop it into a tourism area to help educate visitors on the two countries’ relations.

Savannakhet hopes to organise a conference on post-pandemic investment, trade and tourism cooperation, he said, adding that located on the East - West Corridor linking Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand and boasting tourism advantages, it is calling for investment to tourism infrastructure and services.

The host official also highly valued HCM City’s cooperation programme on human resources training and scholarships for Savannakhet students.

At the meeting, Mai offered HCM City leaders’ greetings on the traditional New Year festival of Laos.

Both host and guest agreed to hold an investment, trade, and tourism conference between HCM City and Savannakhet as well as other Lao localities at an early date.

They also agreed to expand existing joint programmes and add three cooperation contents, namely restoring historical relic sites in tandem with boosting cultural tourism; health care, including manpower training, preventive medicine management, and hospital and grassroots healthcare experience sharing; and agricultural development./.