March 4, 2024
HANOI – Việt Nam has always put its relations with Laos and Cambodia at the top of its foreign policy agenda.
Việt Nam’s Minister of Science and Technology Nguyễn Chí Dũng made this remark at the 13th Meeting of the Joint Coordination Committee on the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam (CLV) Development Triangle on Friday.
The meeting was co-chaired by Minister Nguyễn Chí Dũng, Laos’ Minister of Planning and Investment Khamjane Vongphosy, and Cambodia’s Minister of Commerce Cham Nimul.
Dũng said the establishment of the triangle had helped boost economic growth and reduce poverty in the three countries, and strengthened regional ties in a wide range of areas, including trade, education, healthcare and technology, over the past 25 years.
However, there is still ample room for improvement.
He suggested the three countries direct resources to build more routes to transport goods and commodities among commercial hubs and ports.
He called for more efforts to develop a high-quality workforce, especially in sectors where the three countries have advantages such as renewable energy and mining, to attract investments.
The three countries, he said, needed to press ahead with an action plan to quickly implement the agreements they signed in the framework of the triangle.
Additionally, they needed to formulate special policies for the triangle to incentivise trade and investment, with priority being given to trilateral cross-border trade and the construction of border infrastructure.
Simplifying cross-border administrative procedures to cut costs and creating favourable conditions for high-tech agriculture and renewable energy in the region would be equally crucial.
In addition to economic cooperation, the minister also called for measures to boost trilateral cooperation in security, environment and diplomacy.
In the meeting, the three ministers underlined the trilateral efforts in preparing the Report on the Implementation of the Master Plan for Socio-Economic Development in the CLV Triangle until 2020 and put forward a draft Report on the CLV Triangle Outlook to 2030.
They agreed to submit the two reports to the 12th CLV Development Triangle Summit in Cambodia in 2024.
They urged relevant agencies in the three countries to work together to develop action plans for the Scheme for Tourism Development in the CLV Triangle between 2020 and 2025 with a Vision to 2030, and the Scheme for the Sustainable Development of the Rubber Industry in the CLV Triangle.
They appraised the trilateral efforts in putting the Agreement on Trade Promotion and Facilitation in the CLV Triangle into action, and called on relevant agencies in the three countries to step up trade promotion and business-matching activities to attract more foreign enterprises to the region.
They reaffirmed the determination to tighten trilateral cooperation in security, diplomacy and climate change responses to ensure peace, stability and prosperity in the region.
At the end of the meeting, the committee chairpersons ratified the meeting minutes and urged relevant agencies in the three countries to quickly implement the commitments their countries had made.
The Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle was established in 1999 to strengthen trilateral cooperation, promote stability and security, reduce poverty and foster socio-economic growth in the region.
Over the past 25 years, Vietnamese enterprises have invested more than US$3.7 billion in the triangle with 110 projects. — VNS