(VOVworld) - Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and his Lao counterpart Thongsing Thammavong on Tuesday attended a ceremony to celebrate the completion of a project to increase and upgrade border markers along the two countries’ shared border. Over the last 5 years, the two countries planted 835 border markers along their 2.067 km long borderline. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said that this project symbolizes the traditional friendship between the two countries as well as the mutual trust and understanding between their leaders and people. He added that completion of the project would make it easier for border management and protection, boosting bilateral comprehensive cooperation and consolidating political security and social order: “The inauguration of border marker 460 marks the end of the project to plant markers along the shared-borderline. This is a joint victory in building a borderline of peace, stability and cooperation for mutual development. It will create favorable conditions for economic cooperation between Nghe An and Bo Ly Kham Xay provinces, open new cooperative opportunities in trade and investment for both domestic and foreign businesses, and turn Thanh Thuy-Nam On into an attractive tourist destination.”

Lao Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong reiterated each country’s determination to build a borderline of peace, stability and cooperation: “On this important occasion, I ask the relevant ministries and agencies at all levels, the army and the people of both countries to join hands in protecting our border markers and respecting one another’s sovereignty.”

The two Prime Ministers requested that the relevant ministries and agencies quickly formulate and sign border-related documents, including the Protocol on Border Demarcation and Marker Planting, the Agreement on Border Management Regulations and the Vietnam-Laos Border Gates and Border Gate Management Regulations. Prime Minister Dung said the two countries should focus on building socio-economic infrastructure, particularly roads connecting border areas and border gates to facilitate trade, investment and tourism development.  
The same day, the two Prime Ministers visited some production facilities in Nghe An province including the rubber planting model in Thanh Duc commune in Thanh Chuong district.