The Lao Deputy PM made the statement while working with Hai Phong municipal authorities on February 9 during his current visit to Vietnam.

He highly valued Hai Phong’s socio-economic achievements in 2008 and expressed his wish to expand investment cooperation with the northern port city in order to facilitate the import and export of commodities.

At the working session, Hai Phong mayor Trinh Quang Su briefed his guest on the city’s advantages for socio-economic development and potential for cooperation in key national projects. Hai Phong is currently taking the lead in the country’s IT application to administrative reform with its modern “one-stop-shop” model, he noted.

Both sides shared their experience in various fields, such as land acquisition and compensation, foreign investment attraction, social welfare and workforce issues. They also discussed measures to iron out snags for small-and-medium-sized enterprises in the current global economic recession.

The same day, the Lao Government’s high-ranking delegation also visited some economic establishments and a number of bank branches in the city.