Dear Comrade Phut Phan-Keo Vong Xay - Member of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee - Deputy Governor of Houa phan Province.

Dear leaders representing Departments, branches, units; Tourism Association, Business Association; tourism enterprises, travel companies, reporters of central and local newspapers and radio stations of the two countries Vietnam - Laos and the two provinces of Son La – Houaphan.

First, please allow me to express my deepest gratitude to the leaders of Houaphan province, agencies, departments, and tourism enterprises of Houaphan province for their attention, facilitation, and coordination in organizing this conference. I would like to sincerely thank the UNESCO Hanoi Club, Son La, and Hanoi tourism enterprises, as well as the central and local media and press agencies for sharing, accompanying, and successfully organizing the survey of tourism products, the new Hanoi - Son La - Houaphan Tour; and also, for preparing well the contents for the Son La - Houaphan tourism development cooperation plan. I wish you all good health, happiness, and success! The conference was a great success!

Dear comrades and friends!

Son La and Houaphan are two provinces with similar cultures and socio-economic conditions, with mountains connected to mountains and rivers connected to rivers, with historical traditions, special solidarity and friendship, and close ties, places with beautiful natural landscapes, friendly and hospitable people, and a vigorous national identity. Son La has a particular national relic of the Vietnam - Laos Revolutionary Base, and Houaphan has a Lao Revolutionary Historical Relic Site; the two provinces share a border of 242.042 km long, with 02 pairs of main border gates, including Long Sap - Pa Hang international border gate (currently completing procedures to upgrade to international border gates); Chieng Khuong - Ban Dan national border gate.

In recent years, economy, culture, society, defense, and security cooperation between Vietnam - Laos, Son La - Houaphan have been improving and achieving significant results, in which cultural exchange and tourism development have been expanding; Moc Chau district of Son La province has been recognized by the World Tourism Awards as "The World's Leading Regional Natural Destination." and Moc Chau, will be admitted as a national tourist area according to the provisions of the Tourism Law. Son La is striving to become a tourist center in the Northwest region of Vietnam. In 2023, Son La welcomed 4.65 million visitors, many of whom wanted to experience and visit Son La - Houaphan to learn about the culture and people of Houaphan and the image of "Beautiful Sam Neua Girl.".

Therefore, the organization of the Son La - Houaphan Cultural Tourism Festival with the theme "Son La - Houaphan Love Song" is a very important event, especially the organization of surveys and evaluations of tourism products, the construction of new Hanoi - Son La - Houaphan tours and the organization of the Tourism Development Cooperation Conference to concretize the cooperation activities to develop Son La - Houaphan tourism, build new tourism products to create attractiveness for Son La - Houaphan tourism, take opportunities for cooperation, propose solutions to stimulate demand, support tourism development between the two provinces, at the same time this is also an opportunity to research and discuss solutions to remove difficulties and obstacles in immigration procedures, create favorable conditions for tourists to be picked up and dropped off between Vietnam and Laos, Son La and Houaphan provinces for tourism development, contribute to creating jobs and increasing income for people in the two provinces, eliminating hunger and reducing poverty, especially in ethnic minority areas and border areas.

At this conference, I respectfully request managers, tourism experts, businesses, and all delegates attending the conference to focus on researching, discussing, proposing solutions, and giving in-depth professional opinions on the contents proposed by the conference; especially at this conference, I hope that tourism businesses of Hanoi, Son La and tourism businesses of Houaphan province will have crucial signings on cooperation and linkage in tourism development in the coming time.

On behalf of the leaders of Son La province, I would like to once again respectfully thank comrade Phut Phan-Keo Vong Xay and the leaders of Houaphan province; the departments, branches, and units of Houaphan province; tourism businesses, travel agencies, reporters of central and local newspapers and radio stations and all delegates attending the conference today. I wish all distinguished guests and comrades good health and happiness and the conference a great success!

Thank you very much!