The Tuole Forum 2019 kicked off in Tuole village. When interviewed by the press in Panzhou City, Guizhou Province, Lao Ambassador to China Khamphao Ernthavanh noted that the two sides are hoped to enhance practical cooperation in trade and tourism, and promote mutual exchanges and understanding so as to offer more favorable opportunities for two sides to expand cooperation.
Khamphao Ernthavanh addressed the opening ceremony on October 15th. She said in his speech that China and Laos are neighbors closely connected through mountains. Two sides have signed the action plan for the building of China-Laos community with a shared future in 2019, and started China-Laos Tourism Year to further promote people-to-people and cultural exchanges.
She said that Laos has become one of the most favored destinations among Chinese investors and China has also facilitated Lao development. As two countries has been developing cooperation at sub-national level, they have seen increasingly frequent collaboration at provincial level. Laos supports cooperation in economy, trade and investment, including previous collaboration between Laos and Guizhou province.
She expressed that Laos highly supports the building of Belt and Road Initiative which will boosts cooperation between China and countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) including Laos and Belt and Road partner countries. The Tuole Forun 2019, themed around “Integrating into Belt and Road Construction, Sharing Benefits of an Open World Economy” , will provide opportunities for investors and companies to exchange views and promote cooperation. Besides, it will also push forward regional development and help Laos complete comprehensive cooperation in trade, investment and tourism.
She also said that Laos and Guizhou share the same landform. Therefore, it is hoped that Guizhou province could enhance cooperation in agriculture and forestry with the north of Laos. Meanwhile, Guizhou is expected to send more economic delegations to visit Laos in order to seek for economic and trade cooperation. She suggested that both sides should roll out mechanism for exchanges to advance cooperation at sub-national level, especially cooperation between enterprises.