At the meeting, Secretary Dinh La Thang said after his working visit to Lao PDR from May 29 to June 1 2016, both sides have promoted many cooperation activities with good results. Specifically, late 2016, HCMC has sent a delegation to give Vientiane technical support and to organize trade promotion activities in Vientiane. HCMC has decided to increase its scholarships to students of Vientiane.

Sharing about the working visit’s goal, Mr. Sinlavong Khoutphathoune expressed his wishes to study experience of HCMC in fields of finance, tax, customs, etc. to increase the budget revenue for Vientiane. Related to budget revenue increase, Vientiane has not achieved its results as expected in spite of 10 years of making efforts. Although Vientiane has been contributing 40% of the State’s budget but the budget revenue is still limited failing to meet the development goal of the city and the country. Besides, Mr. Sinlavong Khoutphathoune suggested that HCMC will support Vientiane to outline the plan of livestock development, beef processing. He also said that HCMC should quickly promote establishment of Trade & Tourism Center in Vientiane in late 2017 to welcome the Lao Tourism Year 2018 and Mekong sub-region city mayor’s conference.

For his part, Secretary Dinh La Thang affirmed that the city is willing to share its experience in financial management, budget revenue and spending, customs to Vientiane. Regarding to beef consumption, Mr. Thang said the demand of beef is very big in HCMC, but it requires a feasible research on transport and freight cost related issues how to ensure product quality as well as to reduce product price. Mr. Thang highly appreciated tourism cooperation potential of Vientiane, saying it is now the right time for both cities to build a common tourism product. He also affirmed that HCMC will strengthen a comprehensive cooperation relation with Vientiane to fully exploit both sides’ potential, fostering the friendship relations built by generations of both cities’ leaders and people, making this relation an example of cooperation and friendship relationships between both localities.

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