Seminar highlights VN-Cambodia-Laos economic links

The annual event was held by the Viet Nam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS), the Royal Academy of Cambodia (RAC), and the Lao Academy of Social Sciences (LASS).

Director of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics Nguyen Xuan Thang said the seminar is an occasion for scientists to share information about current and issues affecting development in the three countries, the region, and the world. It is also important for its role in enhancing cooperation amongst the three academies.

VASS Vice President Bui Nhat Quang said Viet Nam, Cambodia, and Laos have always stood side-by-side and closely cooperated with one another in the fight for national independence in the past, as well as the more recent process of nation building and defence. Their economic, cultural, social, political, and security ties have been strongly promoted and are now closer than ever.

Quang added that over the last three decades, the countries have gained major achievements in socio-economic development. They have set up a development triangle, actively engaged in regional and international cooperation mechanisms, and played an important role in lifting cooperation in the Mekong sub-region, the ASEAN Community, and many other connections in Southeast Asia to a new level.

Deputy Director of the RAC’s Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences Kyseryvath said that economic development through regional economic integration, particularly in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS), is mainly driven by the harmonisation of international trade. 

The GMS economic cooperation programme – launched in 1992 by Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam – aims to enhance economic partnership in the GMS and amongst member nations with the support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), he noted.

Meanwhile, Director of Laos’ National Economic Research Institute Feuangsy Laofoung said that economic expansion is important in the current era of development and integration. This new period requests the three countries to bolster sustainable economic links for the sake of each nation and a strong, stable, and sustainable ASEAN economic community.

Echoing this, Director of the VASS’s Institute for Southeast Asian Studies Nguyen Huy Hoang affirmed that the trilateral economic relations have enjoyed great strides over the past years. 

He elaborated that they have assisted one another very much in regional and international integration. Their economic ties have helped foster trade and investment in ASEAN.

To boost the effectiveness of these economic partnerships, the countries’ governments should promote measures supporting business activities, maintain dialogue among their agencies, accelerate the finalisation of agreements relating to trade and investment, and encourage all economic sectors to take part in trade and investment activities within the three nations, Hoang suggested.-VNA