Vietnam, Laos Prime Ministers co-chair the 48th meeting of the Vietnam-Laos Intergovernmental Committee in Vientiane
WVR - On the morning of December 3, in Vientiane, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone co-chaired the 48th Meeting of the Vietnam-Laos Intergovernmental Committee on Bilateral Cooperation.
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| Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone co-chair the 48th Meeting of the Vietnam-Laos Intergovernmental Committee on Bilateral Cooperation. |
The meeting aimed to review and assess the implementation of agreements in the Vietnam-Laos Cooperation Plan for 2021-2025 and 2025; and to discuss and agree on cooperation directions and tasks for 2026-2030 and 2026. It also focused on concretizing the outcomes of the high-level meeting between the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Lao People's Revolutionary Party.
Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone warmly welcomed Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and the high-level Vietnamese government delegation to the meeting. He noted that Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's visit coincided with Laos' 50th National Day, marking an important occasion to implement high-level agreements between the two Parties and to realize the "strategic partnership" between the two countries.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh expressed gratitude for the warm and hospitable reception by Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone and the Lao government. He congratulated Laos on its significant national anniversaries, especially the 50th National Day, and the remarkable achievements the Lao people have attained over 50 years of nation-building and 40 years of renovation.
Discussing the situation in each country, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone expressed satisfaction with the comprehensive achievements of the two Parties, States, and peoples. They were confident that under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, each country's renovation, construction, and national defense efforts would continue to achieve greater success. The great friendship, special solidarity, and comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and Laos will further develop and deepen.
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| Overview of the 48th Meeting of the Vietnam-Laos Intergovernmental Committee on Bilateral Cooperation. |
At the meeting, after reviewing reports on cooperation fields for 2021-2025 and directions and tasks for 2026-2030, the two Prime Ministers and leaders of ministries and agencies discussed specific measures to implement future cooperation agreements, with concrete programs and projects.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that despite facing many challenges, the deep understanding of the directives from the two Politburos and the high determination of the State, Government, ministries, sectors, and localities have enabled the two countries to effectively implement high-level agreements, yielding significant achievements in bilateral cooperation. This contributes to building an independent, self-reliant economy with deep, substantive, and effective international integration.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh highlighted ten key achievements: the highest level of political relations; defense-security cooperation as a pillar; impressive economic and trade growth; breakthroughs in financial cooperation; progress in energy cooperation; effective aid utilization; effective operation of the Laos-Vietnam expert team; strong growth in education-training and cultural tourism cooperation; and resolution of project-related issues.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone recognized that the excellent political and diplomatic relations serve as the core and overall orientation for bilateral relations. Defense and security cooperation remains tight, ensuring political stability and social order in each country, building a peaceful, stable, friendly, cooperative, and comprehensively developing Vietnam-Laos border, and effectively combating transnational crimes.
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| Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh speaks at the 48th Meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee on Vietnam-Laos Bilateral Cooperation. |
Economic, trade, and investment cooperation between the two countries has seen significant progress. As of April 2025, Vietnam has 267 investment projects in Laos with a total registered capital of $5.63 billion. In the first 10 months of 2025, Vietnam's investment in Laos reached $566.1 million, focusing on quality, sustainable projects in key areas where Laos has strengths, such as clean energy, mining, and agriculture.
Many Vietnamese investment projects operate effectively, contributing positively to socio-economic development, creating jobs, and increasing income for thousands of workers, supplementing Laos' budget, especially in telecommunications, banking, rubber planting and processing, and food and dairy production and processing.
The total Vietnam-Laos import-export turnover in the first 10 months of 2025 reached $2.6 billion, a 50.4% increase compared to the same period in 2024, with Vietnam experiencing a trade deficit of $626.2 million.
Education-training, science, technology, culture, tourism, people-to-people exchanges, and cooperation between ministries, sectors, agencies, and localities of the two countries are vibrant and continue to be strengthened. Vietnam and Laos consistently coordinate closely and support each other in multilateral and regional forums, especially in collaboration with other ASEAN member countries in building the ASEAN Community and maintaining ASEAN's unity and consensus on strategic regional issues.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that in the current context, the two countries need new determination, new approaches, and new momentum to foster development together. This will also promote and strengthen the special Vietnam-Laos relationship, making it a model in international relations.
To promote bilateral relations, especially following the high-level meeting between the two Parties, the two Prime Ministers agreed to immediately deepen the Vietnam-Laos relationship with the new height of "Great friendship, special solidarity, comprehensive cooperation, strategic partnership", with "political relations as vital, defense-security and economic cooperation as key, science, technology, education-training cooperation as breakthroughs, business and people cooperation as the foundation, and local cooperation as leverage".
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| Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone speaks at the 48th Meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee on Vietnam-Laos Bilateral Cooperation. |
Agreeing with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's views, Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone stated that he would direct the Laos-Vietnam Intergovernmental Committee to create breakthroughs and deepen the implementation of agreements and high-level directives across all fields.
He noted that Vietnamese enterprises investing in Laos contribute to economic development and job creation for the Lao people. Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone encouraged Vietnamese businesses to invest in large-scale projects in Laos, promote infrastructure connectivity, and implement the Vientiane-Hanoi expressway, enhancing the efficiency of the potash mining project.
He committed to continuing to create favorable conditions for businesses to invest and operate effectively, meeting Laos' requirements, especially in high-value clean agriculture and science and technology projects. The Lao Prime Minister suggested that both sides continue to improve human resource training quality, fully agree on establishing the Laos-Vietnam University, and focus on developing vocational schools and schools in border areas.
The two Prime Ministers agreed to elevate strategic trust to a higher level, further strengthen cooperation in defense and security, and create a strong, strategic breakthrough in economic, trade, investment, and infrastructure development cooperation. This includes promoting economic connectivity, infrastructure connectivity, ensuring economic and energy security for each country, and resolving difficulties and barriers to ensure high efficiency in bilateral cooperation programs and projects.
In the immediate future, in 2026, both sides will focus on effectively implementing the Vietnam-Laos Joint Declarations and the Agreements signed at the 48th Intergovernmental Committee Meeting. They will propose strong, practical measures to further deepen political and diplomatic relations, strengthen the defense-security cooperation pillar, and continue to prioritize education-training cooperation.
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| Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone exchange views on the occasion of the 48th Meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee on Vietnam-Laos Bilateral Cooperation. |
Both sides will continue to enhance political and diplomatic relations, achieving higher efficiency, guiding the overall Vietnam-Laos cooperation relationship. They will maintain and improve the effectiveness of cooperation mechanisms, organize effective visits, meetings, and contacts between high-level leaders in various flexible forms, and improve the practicality and efficiency of cooperation at all levels, sectors, and localities. Both sides will continue to cooperate closely in defense and security, building a peaceful, stable, cooperative, and comprehensively developing Vietnam-Laos border.
The two Prime Ministers agreed to enhance the economic connectivity of the two economies, promoting Vietnam-Laos investment-trade cooperation. This includes organizing meetings between the Lao government leaders and the Vietnamese business community, reviewing Vietnamese investment projects in Laos, and considering the implementation of large-scale projects in Laos, such as building the Vietnam-Laos University and Exhibition Center.
The Lao Government will provide preferential and favourable conditions for major, key projects by Vietnamese enterprises, consider adjusting regulations on the implementation time for hydropower and mining investments in line with new circumstances, and promote strong trade growth, aiming to increase bilateral trade turnover by 10-15% in 2026 compared to 2025, and soon reach a bilateral trade turnover of $5 billion, progressing towards $10 billion annually. They will focus on resolving difficulties and promoting the implementation of transportation infrastructure connectivity, considering agriculture and rural development as one of the pillars of economic cooperation between the two countries.
Both sides will continue to promote cooperation between ministries, sectors, agencies, and localities of the two countries, prioritizing and enhancing the quality of education-training cooperation and human resource development. The Vietnamese government will continue to provide 1,300 scholarships for Lao officials and students to study in Vietnam and will continue to send teachers to teach Vietnamese in Laos.
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| Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone visit a photo exhibition on bilateral cooperation. |
The two Prime Ministers emphasized the need for decisive direction from ministries, sectors, localities, enterprises, and relevant units to effectively implement the committed agreements, continuing to create maximum facilitation for businesses from both countries to cooperate in investment and business activities.
Both sides believe that the success of the meeting will provide new momentum for the bilateral cooperation relationship to develop further, deepen, become more substantive, reliable, and effective, continuously strengthening the great friendship, special solidarity, and comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and Laos in the future.
At the meeting, both sides signed cooperation documents: the Cooperation Agreement between the Government of the Lao PDR and the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam for 2026-2030; the Agreement on the Cooperation Plan between the Government of the Lao PDR and the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam for 2026; the Minutes of the 48th Meeting of the Vietnam-Laos Intergovernmental Committee; and the 2026 Cooperation Plan between the Ministries of Education and Training of both countries.
