On Monday afternoon, during his ongoing visit to Viet Nam at an invitation from Prime Minister (PM) Nguyen Tan Dung, Lao Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong met with Da Nang’s leaders.  In attendance at the event were Deputy PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Secretary of the municipal Party Committee Tran Tho, Chairman of the local People’s Committee Huynh Duc Tho, and representatives from local departments and agencies.

PM Thongsing Thammavong said that his country is learning from Viet Nam’s economic development model.  He remarked that Da Nang is one of the country’s localities which has many invaluable experiences in promoting local economic growth. 

PM Thongsing Thammavong speaking at the meeting

He also took the opportunity to wish Da Nang success in gaining even more remarkable achievements and making more breakthroughs in order to deserve the title as one of the nation’s most modern cities.

In reply, Secretary Tho said that over recent years Da Nang has signed 29 cooperative agreements with Vientiane and some southern provinces in Laos.  He added that between 2013 and 2017 Da Nang would spend a total of 50 billion VND to help Lao provinces promote the development of various aspects such as economy, agriculture, health care, and sports.  The city’s total export turnover to Laos reached over 34 million USD last year. 

From 2002 until now, around 700 Lao students have been studying in Da Nang and 150 of them have been granted scholarships from the local government’s budget.  In addition, 2 Vietnamese language centres have been built in Laos to facilitate Laotian students and teachers to learn the Vietnamese language. 

Four local businesses, with a total investment capital of 53 million USD, are operating in Laos.

On Monday morning, PM Thongsing Thammavong and a high-ranking delegation from Laos had been warmly welcomed by the local authorities at Da Nang International Airport.  After that, they had paid a visit to the Ba Na Hills Resort.  During his work with leaders of Sun Group, the resort’s developer, the Lao official said that he was very impressed with Ba Na's beautiful natural scenery and its special architecture as well as its professional tourist services.