HANOI, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The governments of Laos and Vietnam have agreed to enhance their cooperation this year in the spheres of education, tourism, transport, investment and trade, the Vientiane Times newspaper reported Friday.

    Under a 2008 cooperation agreement signed in Laos' capital Vientiane on Thursday, the two sides agreed to develop a curriculum for teaching the Vietnamese language at boarding schools for various ethnic groups in Laos.

    The two governments also agreed to develop a railway link between Vietnam and central Laos, further cooperate on the prevention of various diseases along the Lao-Vietnamese border, create more favorable conditions for Lao and Vietnamese enterprises to invest in areas of high potential, and increase their two-way trade from 307 million U.S. dollars in 2007 to one billion dollars in 2010, two billion dollars in 2015, and five billion dollars in 2020.