Lao, Thai leaders vow to strengthen cooperation

VIENTIANE, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) — Laos and Thailand have agreed to consolidate cooperative relations between the two countries, Lao state-owned KPL News reported on Monday.

The consensus was reached during Thailand’s new Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s whirlwind visit to Laos on Sept. 16, before returning to Thailand.

During bilateral talks at the Lao government office in Vientiane, Yingluck reaffirmed her desire to strengthen trade cooperation, investment and tourism links between the two countries, and to continue to buy electricity from Laos as agreed by the two governments in previous years.

Lao Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong said the Lao government will continue to work closely with Thailand to address issues related to the illegal migration of Lao people to Thailand, and to survey and demarcate the two countries’ shared border.

Thongsing also expressed appreciation to the Thai government and people for their kind assistance to Laos in the past, which has contributed considerably to the country’s socio-economic development and improvements to the living conditions of the Lao people.

Yingluck also used the occasion to present 2.5 billion baht ( around 75 million U.S. dollars) on behalf of the Thai government to assist Laos’ recent flood victims, and two million baht (around 6,000 U.S. dollars) to renovate secondary schools in Laos’ eastern province of Houaphan in order to boost human resource development.

Thongsing invited Yingluck to attend the Ninth Asia-Europe Meeting and the Fifth Ayeyawady-chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy Meeting, which will both be hosted by Laos next year.

On the same day, Yingluck visited Laos’ President Choummaly Sayasone and President of the Lao National Assembly Pany Yathortou.

Thailand is one of the major foreign investors in Laos, having invested in 276 projects worth 2.68 billion U.S. dollars over the past decade, according to the state-owned Vientiane Times.

Bilateral trade between Laos and Thailand reached 2.1 billion U. S. dollars in 2009, which rose to 2.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2010.

Yingluck’s one-day visit to Laos came at the invitation of Thongsing and was the fourth stop on her tour to Southeast Asian nations after being elected as the first Thai female Prime Minister in July.

Viet PM to visit Laos to boost ties

HANOI, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) — Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung will pay an official visit to Laos on Sept. 9-10, at the invitation of his Lao counterpart Thongsing Thammavong, and will co-chair the Vietnam-Laos conference on cooperation and investment, reported Vietnam News Agency on Wednesday.

The visit, the first overseas trip by Dung since he has been re- elected by the Vietnamese National Assembly as the government prime minister this July, re-confirms Vietnam’s consistent policy to attach importance to and develop the special and comprehensive relations with Laos, said the report.

Vietnam-Laos traditional and comprehensive relationship has been finely developed. The two sides maintain regular exchange of high-ranking visits, with the most recent ones to Laos by Vietnamese Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in June 2011, and to Vietnam by Lao Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong in March 2011, Lao Party General Secretary and President Choummaly Sayasone in August 2011, and Lao National Assembly President Pany Yathotu in late August 2011.

Vietnam is among the leading foreign investors in Laos, to date having 252 projects worth 3.2 billion U.S. dollars.

Vietnam is Laos’ third biggest trade partner after Thailand and China. Two-way trade turnover reached 490 million U.S. dollars in 2010, and 402.3 million U.S. dollars in the first seven months of 2011. Both sides agreed to reach a trade turnover of two billion U. S. dollars by 2015.

The two countries have also close coordination at international forums, including exchange of information about international issues of mutual concern, joint activities in the ASEAN community and the Mekong sub-region. Vietnam shares with Laos experience in hosting international events and preparing for the latter’s access to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Leaders of the two countries agreed to make 2012 as the ” Vietnam-Laos friendship and solidarity year”.

Lao People’s Revolutionary Youth Union pledges to serve the nation

VIENTIANE, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) — The Sixth National Congress of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Youth Union (LPRYU) ended in Laos’ capital of Vientiane on Aug. 24, vowing to continue the revolutionary mission of the ruling Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) and work in the interests of the nation, local media reports said on Thursday.

The two-day congress also elected the sixth LPRYU Central Committee which consisted of 45 members and the Secretariat of nine members. Vilayvong Bouddakham was elected as LPRYU Secretary General, Sonthanou Thammavong and Khampha Phimmasone as deputy secretary generals, and Khampha as LPRYU Inspection Committee Chairman.

Newly elected LPRYU Secretary General Vilayvong Bouddakham was quoted by the state-owned Vientiane Times as saying that “the LPRYU will be a reliable strength for the Party and the nation by supplying young potential and representing the core rights and interests of Lao youths and young people.”

With more than 467,000 members working for the Lao government and private organizations throughout the country, the LPRYU is aiming to promote youths to be patriots endowed with knowledge and ability, progressive vision, creativity, eagerness to learn, leadership abilities and skills in technology, production and business.

The political report of the previous LPRYU Committee highlighted the achievements in implementing the Eighth Party resolution and the Fifth resolution of the union, also indicating some areas of deficiency for the union to improve on, particularly in ideological training.

The congress, which opened on Aug. 23, resolved to strengthen political ideological education and training, and ensure it reaches more than 60 percent of young people nationwide every year over the next five years. It also aimed to improve capacity building for LPRYU organizations at all levels, expand union membership to cover 30 percent of all young people throughout the nation, and 85 percent for junior members.

The union also plans to build model units under the LPRP’s ” four breakthrough approaches” to raise the spirit of competition among union members to do their best for the nation, while increasing unit membership to 50 percent of total members.

To implement its plans, the LPRYU has formulated six priority projects, which are the establishment of model youth professional groups, vocational training for rural youths, talent and creativity promotion, general knowledge and political training for non-schooling youths, youth federation establishment, and youth development funds.

Speaking on the first day of the congress, Choummaly Sayasone, the Secretary General of LPRP and Lao President, call on the LPRYU to pay more attentions to resolve behavior relating to wasteful goodwill, behavior contradicting national culture and tradition, and conducts that damage social order.

Representatives from the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, government ministries, agencies and mass organisations joined 531 Lao youth delegates at the congress.

The LPRYU, the youth wing of the LPRP, originated in 1955 as the Youth Combatant Association, dedicated to mobilize young people throughout the country with a view to contribute to national development.

Choummaly Sayasone retains Lao presidency

VIENTIANE, June 15 (Xinhua) — General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party Choummaly Sayasone was re-elected as President of Laos on Wednesday morning, the first day of the First Session of the seventh Lao National Assembly (NA).

Choummaly was first elected as President of Laos in 2006 during the previous NA, Laos’ parliamentary body.

This session of the 132-member assembly, which was convened Wednesday in the Lao capital of Vientiane and will conclude on June 24, is to vote on the country’s state leadership for the next five-year tenure and discuss issues relating to the assembly’s apparatus.

The ten-day session will also define polices for the NA’s general affairs, discuss the government’s seventh five-year socio-economic development plan for 2011-2015, and adopt the amended statute on tax.