Secretary of the HCM City Party Committee Nguyễn Văn Nên (right) and Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of the People’s Council of Lao capital city of Vientiane Anouphap Tounalom had talks on Monday in HCM City. — VNA/VNS Photo Xuân Khu

HCM CITY — Secretary of the HCM City Party Committee Nguyễn Văn Nên and Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of the People’s Council of Lao capital of Vientiane Anouphap Tounalom discussed ways to promote all-round cooperation between the two localities during their talks in HCM City on Monday.

Nen congratulated Vientiane on the city’s achievements in economic development and Party building, and underlined that HCM City leaders are always proud of its friendship, cooperation and mutual support with Lao localities, with many friendly collaboration activities and delegation exchanges, contributing to promoting the ties between the two Parties and countries.

The HCM City leader affirmed that the city will continue to strengthen economic, social and cultural collaboration with Vientiane, and create favourable conditions for businesses of the two localities to seek trade partnership opportunities.

Meanwhile, the city will continue to pay attention to educate the youth on the friendship between the two Parties and countries, while assisting Lao students in the city.

For his part, Anouphap Tounalom said that the Vientiane delegation’s visit aims to further foster the friendship and comprehensive cooperation between the two Parties, States and peoples, and discuss specific cooperation roadmap for the two localities.

He said that although this year, Vientiane is likely to post an economic growth of 5.3 per cent, the city has stull faced many difficulties and challenges, including high inflation rate, human resources shortage, and decline in investment and production. Therefore, Vientiane is in need of experience sharing to overcome difficulties, said Tounalom.

Like Vietnamese localities, Vientiane also needs special policies serving its development and untangle bottlenecks in mechanism, he stated, asking for HCM City’s sharing of experience and support during the building and piloting of regulations on special mechanisms for Vientiane.

For bilateral future cooperation orientations, Tounalom proposed that HCM City continue supporting Vientiane in implementing a project to develop beef cattle breeds and seek selling market for beef.

He suggested that HCM City assist Vientiane in building a centre for social support, and cooperate with the city in speeding up the project to build a trade-tourism centre to promote trade exchange between the two sides.

The Vientiane leader also asked for HCM City’s support in resuming the friendship and cooperation agreement between HCM City’s District 5 and Vientiane’s Sikhottabong district after a temporary suspension due to COVID-19. — VNS