The signing of the agreement is part of the two countries’ effort to realize the transport facilitation documents reached by ASEAN member States, namely the ASEAN Framework Agreement on the Facilitation of Goods in Transit and some of its Protocols, the ASEAN Framework Agreement on the Multimodal Transport, and the ASEAN Framework Agreement on the Facilitation of Inter-State Transport

Vietnam and Laos set up diplomatic ties on September 5, 1962. The two sides have organized various activities to mark the 50^th anniversary of the bilateral relations and 30 years of signing the Friendship and Cooperation Treaty.

Over the past years, cooperation in economics, national defense, education among others has been buttressed. Vietnam is Laos’ second biggest investor with over 200 projects capitalizing US$3.57 billion.

Both sides strive to raise the two-way trade turnover to US$1 billion in 2012 and US$2 billion by 2015.

By Ngoc Van