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Viet Nam Customs and Lao Customs Strengthen Bilateral Cooperation

The cooperative relationship between Viet Nam Customs and Lao Customs is a traditional, special friendship built and nurtured by generations of leaders from both customs authorities over many years. Cooperation and mutual support activities between Lao Customs and Viet Nam Customs over the years have fundamentally met the requirements for enhancing the efficiency of state management of customs of both sides, ensuring the implementation of international commitments to which both sides are members, as well as contributing to strengthening mutual understanding and cementing the fine cooperative relationship between the two customs authorities.

Lao Customs is the sole partner with which Viet Nam Customs has established comprehensive cooperation mechanisms spanning from central to local levels, implemented periodically, regularly, and maintained for many years. Activities include: Annual Director General Conference; Department-level cooperation activities focusing on capacity building for Lao Customs (in anti-smuggling, valuation, origin, C/O, post-clearance audit) and experience exchange, implementing 02 Memoranda of Understanding on statistical data exchange and cooperation in anti-smuggling investigations. Activities are mainly based on the needs and proposals of Lao Customs; Sub-department-level cooperation activities: Sub-department-level talks, cooperative activities between border customs units, Hanoi – Vientiane annual talks, periodic briefings, sports-cultural exchanges, visits and New Year wishes...

Annually, both sides formulate and agree on a Cooperation Plan as a basis for implementing cooperative activities between the Customs Authorities of the two countries. The 2026 Cooperation Plan comprises 5 activities. Implementing the 2026 Cooperation Plan, Lao Customs and Vietnam Customs organized the Director General Meeting in Laos.

Information regarding the 2026 Viet Nam – Lao Customs Director General Conference is as follows:

At the invitation of Comrade Phoukhaokham Vannavongxay, Director General of Lao Customs, a high-level delegation from Viet Nam Customs led by Comrade Nguyen Van Tho, Director General, paid a working visit to Lao Customs from October 25 to 27, 2026.

Group photo

During this visit, both sides held their Annual Bilateral Talks focusing on bilateral cooperation issues to further consolidate and develop the cooperative relationship and mutual support towards the goal of facilitating and ensuring security for Viet Nam - Laos bilateral trade.

The talks took place in an atmosphere of sincerity, openness, friendship, trust, and mutual understanding. Both sides briefly briefed each other on the development status of each side, key tasks in the coming time, evaluated the implementation results of the Cooperation Plan in the past period, and discussed and agreed on the 2027 Cooperation Plan.

Regarding the 2026 cooperation results, both sides completed 4 out of 5 activities of the Cooperation Plan, including: (i) Exchange of experience on organizational structure and Party work; (ii) Bilateral talks on Anti-smuggling; (iii) Vietnam Customs providing training and capacity building for Lao Customs on Classification, Valuation, and Origin; (iv) Organization of the DG Conference. Activity (v) Information exchange on Post-clearance audit is scheduled to be implemented from November 16–20, 2026. All activities were coordinated and organized according to plan and met the requirements of both sides.

Regarding mutual administrative cooperation and assistance, both sides acknowledged the results achieved in exchanging information for anti-smuggling investigations and customs law violations. For this activity to yield practical efficiency serving timely customs management of each side, both sides agreed to continue prioritizing support in verifying requests and providing information, especially regarding narcotics and precursor chemicals, and promptly providing news on cases with potential legal violations of each side.

The fact that both countries' Customs Authorities are conducting organizational restructuring leads to the need to unify cooperation mechanisms at the local level in the coming time.

Regarding the orientation of cooperation in 2027, both sides agreed:

1. Enhance information exchange to improve the efficiency of coordination, control, and facilitation of cross-border trade: both sides update contact point lists for regional Customs sub-departments, border Customs units of Vietnam and corresponding units of Lao Customs.

2. Effectively implement 2027 cooperation activities according to the attached Annex of the 2027 Vietnam – Lao Customs Cooperation Plan.

3. Continue implementing the Memorandum of Understanding on Statistical Data Exchange and the Memorandum of Understanding on Information Exchange for Anti-smuggling Investigations.

4. Continue enhancing the effectiveness of cooperation, coordination, and exchanges between Customs authorities of provinces sharing the mutual border between the two countries. Unify the regional cooperation mechanism when the new organizational structures of both sides stabilize.

5. The 2027 Viet Nam – Lao Customs Director General Conference will be organized in Viet Nam. The specific time and venue will be agreed upon through the international cooperation contact points of both sides.

At the conclusion of the Conference, both sides signed the Minutes of Meeting as a basis for implementing cooperative activities between the two Customs Authorities in the following year.