Honored guests attending Laos-China Belt and Road Cooperation Forum have group photos taken in Vientiane, Laos, on Feb. 2, 2018. Laos-China Belt and Road Cooperation Forum kicked off here Friday, focusing on development and cooperation between the two neighboring countries. (Xinhua/Qin Qing)

VIENTIANE, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Laos-China Belt and Road Cooperation Forum kicked off here Friday, focusing on development and cooperation between the two neighboring countries.

Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, in a congratulatory message sent to the forum, said the forum is an implementation of the outcomes of Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to the country in November last year.

It is also an enrichment and implementation of relevant policies and outcomes of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, which was held in Beijing last May, he added.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Cai Mingzhao, president of China's Xinhua News Agency, said the successful visit by President Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, is of milestone significance to further boost bilateral traditional friendship and lift their long-standing and stable comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership to a new stage.

During Xi's meeting with Bounnhang Vorachit, general secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee and president of Laos, the two sides agreed to jointly build a China-Laos economic corridor, fostering new seeds and mapping out a new blueprint as the Belt and Road cooperation has already achieved great success, Cai noted.

He said the forum was organized to push forward the implementation of the results reached by the leaders of the two countries and make positive contributions to accelerating the synergy of China's Belt and Road Initiative and Laos' strategy of turning itself from a "land-locked" country to a "land-linked" one, and building a community of shared future with strategic significance.

Cai noted that through this forum, media organizations can play a unique role in providing a communication platform for the two countries to strengthen development and cooperation in industries.

He called for expanding cooperation between media organizations of the two sides and jointly setting up a Belt and Road economic news and information alliance. He said Xinhua stands ready to deepen cooperation with Lao News Agency and other media organizations in the country.

Speaking at the forum's opening ceremony, Kikeo Khaikhamphithoune, member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of Lao People's Revolutionary Party and head of the Party's Commission for Propaganda and Training, said jointly building the Belt and Road will promote all-round communication and cooperation between the two countries and benefit the two countries and two peoples.

At the forum, Xinhua News Agency and Xinhua President Cai were awarded freedom medals by the Lao government.

The two-day forum, themed "Opportunities and Outlook of Laos-China Cooperation - Strategic Integration of Laos' Strategy of Transformation from a Landlocked to a Land-linked Country and the Belt and Road Initiative," is jointly organized by the Commission for Propaganda and Training of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, the Lao Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, China's Xinhua News Agency, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Lao Chinese Chamber of Commerce.

Over 500 delegates from government departments, enterprises and other sectors are invited to the forum, which will also witness the issuing of "Report on China-Laos Cooperation Opportunities under the Belt and Road Initiative in 2018" by the China Economic Information Service.