Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith received yesterday visiting Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe, who is in Laos in response to an invitation by his Lao counterpart to attend the ASEAN Summit and related events.

A bilateral meeting was held following a welcoming ceremony for his Japanese counterpart hosted by Prime Minister Thongloun.

Both sides exchanged points of view in an amicable and frank manner about the cooperation and strategic partnership between Laos and Japan.

Both sides highly valued the growing strategic partnership acknowledging that the cooperation has enjoyed sound growth, especially in the areas of trade, investment, and the increase in the number of Japanese visitors to Laos.

They agreed to adopt a plan on development cooperation between the two countries to meet the demand of sustainable development and the 8^th 5-year national socio-economic development plan in Laos.

The two prime ministers agreed to continue to discuss and promote cooperation in economics, trade, investment, education and culture and other issues under bilateral cooperation frameworks.

The host and guest highly valued the success of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in July and shared points of view on regional and international issues of common interest.

Prime Minister Thongloun expressed gratitude to the government of Japan upon its provision of Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Laos over the past years.

The Japanese government has agreed to provide JPY 500 million (almost US$5 million) as non-project grant support to the Lao government to ensure the success of budget balancing efforts of the Lao government and support the hosting of the ASEAN Summits and related summits in Laos.