Speaking at the conference, Director General of Vietnam Customs Nguyen Van Tho affirmed the traditional friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and Laos.
In recent years, in order to foster cooperative relations, the Customs agencies of the two countries have also sent many working delegations to visit and exchange experiences in customs management.
The results of the visits and working sessions show that the cooperation between Vietnam Customs and Laos Customs is built on trust in cooperation, support, and mutual assistance for mutual development.
The Customs of the two countries also pay special attention to building, maintaining, preserving and developing the cooperative relationship between the two Customs agencies and making the cooperative relationship increasingly substantive and practical, facilitating economic, trade, investment and travel exchanges between the people of the two countries.
According to the report at the conference, trade turnover between Vietnam and Laos in 2022 and 2023 reached over 1.6 billion USD, an increase of nearly 20% compared to 2021. In the first 9 months of 2024, trade turnover reached nearly 1.5 billion USD, an increase of 16.7% over the same period last year. This is clear evidence of the implementation of measures by both sides to facilitate trade.
In order to further strengthen and develop the cooperative and mutual support relationship towards the goal of facilitating and ensuring security for Vietnam - Laos trade, on behalf of Vietnam Customs and Laos Customs, Director General Nguyen Van Tho and Director General Phoukhaokham Vannavongxay agreed to approve the cooperation plan in 2025.
Accordingly, in 2025, the two agencies will implement 6 coordination contents, such as the two sides will organize talks and exchange experiences on anti-smuggling investigations within the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding on anti-smuggling investigations between the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam and Laos.
Vietnam Customs will send officers to train and improve the capacity of Lao Customs officers related to the collection, analysis and processing of information from intelligence sources. At the same time, it will send officers to train and improve the capacity of Lao Customs officials in the work of controlling, investigating and handling arrests, criminal and drug cases.
The two sides will also exchange experiences on methods of determining value, origin and classification of import and export goods; the two sides will exchange experiences on post-clearance inspection; and organize a Conference of Directors General of Laos - Vietnam Customs to evaluate the results of implementing the proposed plan.