Lao Deputy Prime Minister Somsavat Lengsavat and President of Board of Directors of VietinBank Phạm Huy Hùng are at a ceremony to open a VietinBank branch in Laos

Lao Deputy Prime Minister Somsavat Lengsavat is urging Vietnam and Laos to co-operate more fully in resolving difficulties facing businesses from both sides. At a Vietnam-Laos business seminar in Hanoi yesterday, Lengsavat said he highly valued Vietnam's active contribution to Laos' socio-economic development, which he said had created jobs and boosted the State budget. He hoped that businesses in the two countries will continue to strengthen co-operation in investment and development, as they have done for the past 50 years. Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc urged the two countries to support businesses, while regularly organising talks between Government and enterprises to complete agreements on trade and investment. Phuc also said the two sides need to focus on projects that involve energy, agriculture, mining, and trade.