Make the most of external cooperation benefits, officials told

Fully grasp Party and state policies and guidelines to maximise the benefits of external cooperation and drive development, officials in charge of external cooperation affairs in the information, culture and tourism sector have been told.
Deputy Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Mr Savankhone Razmountry, recently gave the advice at a meeting of the sector on external cooperation.
Mr Savankhone, who is in charge of the sector’s external cooperation affairs, said regional and international cooperation offers both opportunities and challenges.

“Therefore, we must properly grasp Party and state guidelines and policies and translate them into the implementation of national socio-economic development plans,” he told the meeting, which took place in Champassak province.
The International Cooperation Department under the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, three central provinces and four southern provinces organised and took part in the meeting. Mr Savankhone told participants to be hardworking and conscientious in fulfilling international obligations to maximise the nation’s interests.
The deputy minister underlined the need to train officials and upgrade their professional expertise so they can properly fulfill their duty to be an efficient focal point for both internal and external cooperation.
The meeting reviewed the sector’s work in external cooperation over the past year and discussed this year’s work plan.
The outcomes of the meeting will be incorporated into the agenda of the upcoming fifth ordinary foreign affairs meeting, which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will host in September.
Mr Savankhone hailed the success of Visit Laos Year 2018, saying external cooperation is crucial to boosting the tourism industry.
He thanked those involved in the Visit Laos Year 2018 tourism promotion, when 4.18 million foreign tourists visited Laos - an increase of 8.2 percent compared to 2017.
The sector generated income of more than US$755 million, an increase of 17 percent compared to the year before.
“In order to generate more revenue from tourism, we are working with friendly strategic countries like China, with whom we have teamed up to promote Visit Laos-China Year 2019,” Mr Savankhone said.
The Lao and Chinese governments jointly launched Visit Laos-China Year 2019 on January 25.
This month a group of 1,000 Chinese visited Laos from April 6-9, when a special programme of events was arranged.

By Times Reporters
(Latest Update April 19, 2019)