Kaysone Phomvihane, Guiyang become friendly cities

Officials of Guiyang and Kaysone Phomvihane city in Laos signed a cooperation agreement online. [Photo/WeChat account of Guiyang Foreign Affairs Office]

Kaysone Phomvihane city, South Laos's Savannakhet province, and Guiyang, Southwest China's Guizhou province, signed a letter of intent to establish a friendly city relationship through video link. The number of international friendly cities cooperating with Guiyang has increased to 24.

It is understood that Kaysone Phomvihane city is the second largest city and economic center in Laos. It currently focuses on its developing processing industry, foreign trade and service industry.

Prasongsinh Chaleunsouk, secretary of the municipal Party committee and mayor of Kaysone Phomvihane, Somkhit Vankham, consul general of the Lao Consulate General in Changsha, and Lin Ping, vice mayor of Guiyang, attended the online signing ceremony and delivered speeches. The meeting was chaired by Liu Xue, director of Guiyang Foreign Affairs Office.

At the signing ceremony, Lin introduced the economic and social development of Guiyang and the plan for cooperation in the upcoming future.

Lin hoped that the Kaysone Phomvihane city and Guiyang city could strengthen exchanges and cooperation in the fields of economy and trade, infrastructure, green development, education, culture and tourism.

The two cities also hoped to better benefit the locals in both cities by taking advantage of the new opportunities brought by the opening of the China-Laos Railway, the entry into force and implementation of the RCEP Agreement, and the development of the Lancang-Mekong cooperation. RCEP, or the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, is a landmark trade accord that came into effect at the start of the year – involving China and regional partner nations – which is rolling out major reductions in tariffs between its members.

Prasongsinh introduced in detail that Kaysone Phomvihane city is further developing its finance, infrastructure, urban management, education and health industries.

He hoped that the city would maintain close cooperation with Guiyang to jointly attract investment and gradually build Kaysone Phomvihane into a modern city.

Somkhit Vankham also expressed his hope that Guizhou province would become a key province for Laos-China cooperation in the future.