CAMBODIA and Laos plan to sign an agreement in April to allow goods vehicles and tourist buses free passage across the border to boost trade and tourism, Minister of Tourism Thong Khon said last week.

Currently, traders and tourists are required to change vehicles at the border.

"We are negotiating with the Laos authorities to sign an agreement on direct vehicle transport," he said.

Cambodia already has a similar agreement with Vietnam permitting 50 vehicles to cross the border per day. Both countries plan to extend the agreement to 150 vehicles per day next month.

The agreement with Laos will go further in expanding  the volume of cross-border traffic, said So Nguon, co-chairman of the Ministry of Tourism's Transportation Working Group.

Trade between the two countries represents just three percent of that between Cambodia and Vietnam, or about US$1 million a year, said Kengchai Sixannon, first secretary at the Laos Embassy in Phnom Penh.