Lao-Viet Trade Fair will promote products to regional markets
Lao-Viet Trade Fair will promote products to regional markets
Laos and Vietnam are preparing to open an annual trade fair in Vientiane next week to boost economic cooperation and expand markets for products from both countries in the region.
The Lao-Viet Trade Fair 2014 also aims to showcase production and supply capacity of businesses from the two countries in preparation for expected stronger competition when the region becomes the Asean Economic Community next year.
The exhibition will be officially opened on July 3 at the Lao-ITECC on Khampheangmeuang Road in Phonthan village, Sisattanak district and will close on July 7.
More than 300 exhibitors overall are expected to bring their products to this event, an official from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce told Vientiane Times on Wednesday.
More than 200 Lao companies will exhibit wooden furniture, handicrafts, One District - One Product goods and agro-processing products. Over 100 enterprises from Vietnam will showcase plastic, electrical and machinery products.
The trade fair is a very important event for producers to promote their products, exchange production ideas and expand their marketing network in both countries and to other Asean member countries.
It is expected that Lao and Vietnamese companies will sign business cooperation agreements during the trade fair, the official said.
The Lao-Viet Trade Fair 2014 is organised by the Trade and Product Promotion Department, Lao Ministry of Industry and Commerce in cooperation with the Vietnamese Trade Promotion Department. The governments of both countries have introduced a number of measures to boost economic cooperation in recent years as part of efforts to further strengthen their special relations.
The two countries plan to increase bilateral trade to US$2 billion in 2015 and to US$5 billion in 2020. To achieve this ambitious target, the two nations are offering each other investment incentives and tax breaks to boost investment and trade.
Two-way trade between Laos and Vietnam over the first 10 months of 2013 reached US$817 million, up by 13 percent compared with the same period in 2012.
The two governments plan to strive for 20 percent growth in two-way trade this year, up from the US$1 billion expected by the year ending 2013.
Vietnam is a major trade partner and also the second-largest source for foreign direct investment in Laos.
From 1988 to now, 807 Vietnamese enterprises have invested in 421 projects in Laos with a combined value of about US$4.7 billion, according to a report from the Lao Ministry of Planning and Investment's Department of Investment Promotion.
vientiane times
