The President of Laos, Choummaly Sayasone has pledged to strengthen cooperation and communication with China.

President Choummaly, who is attending the APEC meetings here in Beijing, has met with Chinese president Xi Jinping.

During an interview with China Radio International, President Choummaly said China and Laos are good neighbors and good friends. He says he also highly appreciates China's support and help for Laos' economy.

He says that his country hopes to strengthen cooperation and exchanges with China, in a bid to promote agriculture and infrastructure construction and speed up Laos' social and economic development.

'Laos has apparent advantages in energy, minerals, agriculture, industry and service sectors. These sectors will provide many investment opportunities for China's merchants. In the future, we hope the two sides will bring about concrete benefits to the two peoples.'

Choummaly also said that Laos stands ready to actively participate in the preparation work of establishing the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

The trade between the two countries has reached 1.9 billion USD from January to May in 2014, increasing 145 percent comparing with the same period of last year. By May this year, China was the top foreign investor in Laos.