(VOVworld) - Activities are underway to celebrate Vietnam-Laos Solidarity and Friendship Year 2012, which marks 50 years of diplomatic ties and 35 years since the signing of the Friendship and Cooperation Treaty.

"Politics forms the foundation for the two countries to boost ties, especially in economics, as economic cooperation not only serves each country’s interests but also contributes to preserving and upholding the traditional friendship built up by generations".

The Vientiane and Champasak Trade and Investment Promotion Conference, which took place yesterday in Ho Chi Minh city, featured the current policies and economic prosperity of Vietnam and Laos in general, and of Ho Chi Minh city, Vientiane, and Champasak province in particular. The conference, held by the Investment and Trade Promotion Centre of Ho Chi Minh city, aimed to provide enterprises with better understanding of their sectors of concern to set up long-term and effective cooperation based on mutual interests. Secretary Lê Thanh Hải of the Ho Chi Minh Municipal Party Committee spoke at the event:

The same day in Hanoi, the Ministry of Education and Training held a reunion of Laotian students and Vietnamese teachers, who recalled memories of their student time during Vietnam’s fierce war of liberation. Mrs. Bouapha Oudomsouk of the Pathet News Agency of the Laos Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism told VOV: I never forget my first day in Vietnam in 1972 when the war was harshly striking Vietnam and Laos. My school stayed near Hàm Rồng bridge in Thanh Hoa province which received a heavy bombardment, so our teachers brought us to evacuation sites where we were sheltered by the locals. We’re very happy. It has been 30 years since we last met. The teachers didn’t recognize us at first because we ‘re all gotten old".