Deepening Traditional Friendship, Building a Cooperation Model

Mao Weiming, deputy secretary of the CPC Hunan Provincial Committee and governor of the People's Government of Hunan Province, met in Changsha with Phouvong Bounsou, chairman of the Administrative Committee of Vientiane Province of the Lao People's Democratic Republic, and his entourage on the afternoon of October 20, 2026. The guests came to attend the 3rd Hunan Fair for Trade & Investment.

Also present were Vice Governor Yu Hongsheng and Secretary General of the People's Government of Hunan Province Wang Wei'an.

Governor Mao Weiming welcomes Chairman Phouvong Bounsou on his visit to Hunan.

Laos is a landlocked country in Asia, bordering China to the north, with a land area of about 238,000 square kilometers and a population of about 7.5 million. Vientiane Province is located in the northwestern part of Laos.

Governor Mao welcomed the guests and briefly introduced the economic and social development of Hunan Province. He said that Hunan and Laos are close to each other in terms of geographical location, close people-to-people bonds, and business ties. The story of "100,000 Hunan entrepreneurs venturing into Laos" is widely told. Particularly in recent years, the two sides have achieved infrastructure connectivity, steadily advanced economic and trade cooperation, increasingly deepened people-to-people exchanges, and rapidly developed cultural and tourism collaboration. Lao delegations have made 41 visits with 4,545 people to Hunan, while a total of 195 Hunan enterprises have set up operations in Laos. The two sides have formed six pairs of friendship province and city relationships, and the Huaihua-Vientiane international freight train service has operated more than 800 trips, ranking first in scale in central China.

Governor Mao noted that Hunan bears the historic mission of building a hub for cooperation with Laos. He expressed the hope that under the strategic guidance of the top leaders of the two parties and two countries of China and Laos, the two provinces will continue to translate the cooperation blueprint into concrete actions. Relying on platforms such as the "One Road, Two Parks," both sides will jointly promote "Hunan enterprises entering Laos markets," continuously strengthen agricultural cooperation, and work together to advance people-to-people exchanges, contributing the strength of the two provinces to building an all-weather China-Laos community with a shared future for the new era.

The meeting.

Chairman Phouvong Bounsou remarked that Vientiane Province is willing to take the opportunity of celebrating the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Laos and China and the Year of China-Laos Friendship to enhance high-level exchanges, economic and trade interactions, and cultural and tourism communications with Hunan Province. Vientiane Province will learn from Hunan's advanced experience in modern agriculture, infrastructure construction, and rural revitalization, carry forward the traditional friendship between the two countries, and open up new prospects for partnership.

This article is from the Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Yu Jiangjiang

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn