In June 2018, Bounnhang paid a visit to Shibadong Village. The Lao leader and his party were impressed by the peaceful and prosperous village life in the green mountains.

Bounnhang interacted with the villagers and county- and village-level officials of the Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture about the villagers' life and their livelihood.

He said he was happy to hear Shibadong's tremendous changes in a short period of time and its success in ending poverty by acting upon General Secretary Xi's idea of targeted poverty alleviation.

China's approach to make Party secretaries at five levels, namely the village, town, county, municipal (prefecture), and provincial levels, fully undertake their poverty-alleviation responsibilities to ensure thorough implementation gave him much food for thought.

There were still many poor people and households in Laos, and the poverty alleviation experience and practice of Shibadong is worth learning.

Laos and China are good neighbors, good friends, good comrades and good partners: the two Parties and countries have always worked side by side and supported each other in times of need. We should learn from and help each other to achieve common development.