Lao Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Khamphan Phommathat (right) presented the souvenirs to Hải Phòng municipal Party Committee Lê Ngọc Châu on June 17. — VNA/VNS Photo

HẢI PHÒNG — Lao Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Khamphan Phommathat paid a working trip to the northern port city of Hải Phòng on Wednesday on the occasion of the seventh expanded justice conference of Vietnamese and Lao border provinces.

Secretary of the Hải Phòng municipal Party Committee Lê Ngọc Châu said the port city now sprawls across nearly 3,200 sq.km and counts over 4.6 million residents, making it the fourth most populous locality in Việt Nam. Its economy is valued at nearly US$30 billion, ranking third third in the country, and it has maintained double-digit growth for 11 straight years.

The bilateral relationship has been nurtured by generations of leaders and citizens on both sides. Preserving it, he said, is both a political duty and a matter of deep sentiment shared by the provincial Party Organisation, authorities, and people.

Hải Phòng has already established friendship and cooperation agreements with the Lao provinces of Vientiane and Oudomxay, which cover Party and administration building, education-training, healthcare, tourism, investment, and trade. On the education front, the city runs scholarships for 134 students from the two provinces.

Châu noted that recent high-level meetings between leaders of the two Parties and States reaffirmed their commitment to further developing the great friendship, special solidarity, and comprehensive cooperation. Both sides have agreed to link up their economies, with particular emphasis on transport infrastructure, logistics, trade, energy, telecoms, tourism, and education-training. They are also pushing to deepen ties between individual localities and give Laos better access to Việt Nam's seaports.

Many of those priority areas also match the city’s own strengths and ambitions, he observed, expressing Hải Phòng’s wish to expand practical and win-win cooperation with Lao localities in the coming years.

Reaffirming Hải Phòng’s commitment to fostering friendship and cooperation with Lao provinces, Châu noted that significant untapped potential remains in bilateral ties, which has yet to fully match the strengths and the great friendship, special solidarity, and comprehensive cooperation shared by the two Parties and nations.

He asked Phommathat to keep supporting stronger links between Lao ministries, agencies, and localities and Hải Phòng in education-training, healthcare, agriculture and environmental protection, natural resources and mining, and people-to-people exchanges.

Phommathat, in reply, welcomed what cooperation between Hải Phòng and Lao localities had yielded in recent years. He hoped that the city would press on with deeper collaboration with Lao partners, especially in natural resources and mining, education-training, and the sharing of successful experiences and new ideas.

The host voiced confidence that the trip would cement friendly and cooperative relations between Hải Phòng and Lao localities, while also reinforcing the bilateral great friendship, special solidarity, and comprehensive cooperation.

The trip unfolded as both countries gear up for the Laos-Việt Nam Friendship and Solidarity Year in 2027, which will mark the 65th anniversary of diplomatic relations (September 5) and the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation (July 18). — VNA/VNS