The agreement was within the framework of the 30^th meeting of the Vietnam-Laos Inter-governmental Committee for economic, cultural and scientific-technical cooperation, which took place in Vientiane from January 6-10.

In the first 11 months of 2007, two-way trade turnover reached US$289 million, a year-on-year increase of 32 percent. The figure was estimated to amount to US$ 307 million for the whole year, up 18 percent over 2006.

In 2007, Laos licensed 87 Vietnamese-invested projects with a total registered capital of US$1.2 billion.

At the meeting, Laos proposed the Vietnamese National Assembly approve the injection of an additional VND300 billion into the VND900 billion already commitment to implementing essential projects in the 2006-2010 period.

Vietnam pledged to give 300 graduate and post-graduate scholarships to Lao students each year.

The two countries agreed to increase the two-way trade turnover to US$1 billion by 2010 and US$2 billion five years later. The figure is expected to reach US$5 billion by 2020.

Laos committed to create favourable conditions for Vietnamese businesses to conduct survey and invest in minerals exploitation while Vietnam will help Laos establish and develop the stock market.

Apart from creating favourable conditions for the implementation of joint transport projects, including roads, air routes and railways, the two sides also agreed to boost cooperation in other areas such as energy, information, telecommunications, finance and banking.