The annual conference, the fourth of its kind, serves a forum for areas within the development triangle to introduce their potential and investment incentives to entrepreneurs from all three countries.

This year’s conference was co-chaired by Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Van Trung, his Laotian counterpart Thoongmy Phomvisay and the Secretary of State of Cambodia’s Ministry of Commerce, Mao Thora.

Representatives from embassies and international organisations based in Vietnam , various Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian ministries and close to 300 businesspeople attended the event.

A selection of reports presented at the conference showed that the three neighbouring nations still have a huge potential for further cooperation as Vietnam boasts many ports and deep water harbours, a large consumer market of 86 million people, modern technologies and an abundant skilled workforce.

Meanwhile, Cambodia and Laos possess many advantages in terms of agricultural and forestry products, hydroelectric power, natural resources, agricultural land for planting industrial crops, and tourism.

To step up cooperation and investment in the region, the participants suggested building a comprehensive and long-term programme of cooperation, jointly coordinated by all three countries.

They emphasised on the need to develop human resources, build and upgrade the infrastructure in all three countries, especially in transport networks, water supply systems and power plants and promote investment programmes for the whole region.

Despite the impacts of the global financial crisis, the region’s provinces and cities have spared no effort in improving their investment environments and policies to facilitate the business community. So far, in Vietnam, Laos has invested 48 million USD in eight projects and Cambodia has carried out seven projects, with a combined registered capital of 6.2 million USD.

In return, Vietnam has injected more than 3 billion USD into 166 projects in Laos, and an additional 400 million USD into 52 projects in Cambodia. Twenty-eight of the Vietnamese-invested projects have taken place in the development triangle.

In the first ten months of 2009, the conference heard that Vietnam had invested in 20 projects totalling 1.3 billion USD in Laos and 10 projects worth 218 million USD in Cambodia.