Lao province seeks tie-in with southern Viet Nam

Laos’s central province of Khammouane wants to bolster trade and investment co-operation with Viet Nam’s southern region, especially HCM City, Khambay Damlat, its Governor, has said.

Speaking at a meeting with officials from the HCM City Investment and Trade Promotion Centre and business executives last Friday, he said: “We have had good co-operation with [central] provinces like Quang Binh and Ha Tinh and now want to expand that to southern provinces, especially HCM City.”

He hailed the city’s socio-economic achievements in the last several years.

On Wednesday, he had led a high-level delegation to a meeting with authorities and entrepreneurs in the southern province of Long An to discuss co-operation in agriculture and processing, he said.

“Many sectors, including services and healthcare, remain underdeveloped in our province. We, therefore, want to co-operate with Vietnamese investors to develop the service industry, process farm and forestry produce, and develop large-scale organic vegetable farms.

“We also want investors from HCM City to invest in our healthcare sector, upgrading hospitals, installing advanced technologies, and improving the skills of our medical staff.”

The province had welcomed many Vietnamese investors in the past but their investments had been still modest, he said, adding it hoped to attract more of them. —VNS

Tags: Vietnam Laos cooperation, Vietnam Laos trade