Trade relations between Vietnam and Laos have improved in recent years, with bilateral trade reaching US$900 million last year. It is expected to rise to $2 billion by 2015 and $5 billion by 2020.

Vietnam is one of the top investors in Laos in many sectors, including energy, banking, insurance, plantations of industrial crops, commercial services and urban development.

Laos’s Champasak province, known as a tourism, social and economic hub, has attracted the most Vietnamese investors. The province has developed many industrial parks with a total area of 2,660ha and three special economic zones. At least 679 domestic and foreign projects with total investment capital of 5,884 billion Lao kip have begun in the province. HCM City currently has 37 projects in Champasak with a total capital of more than $217.7 million.

Southideth Phommalat, Laos’s consul general in HCM City, said the Lao government had exempted land rental costs for investors so they could build schools, hospitals and infrastructure projects.

The government has also offered many incentives for foreign businesses to invest in remote areas in Laos.

“Vietnamese businesses need to thoroughly understand Laos’s law and investment policies to avoid trade disputes and help contribute to cooperative ties between the two countries,” Phommalat said.

Developing trade and economic activities at borders and border gates was also important, he said, pointing out that Laos bordered 10 Vietnamese provinces with a total length of more than 2,000 km.

With quotes from VietNamNet