Vietnam and China agreed to enhance cooperation in the management of border gates along their border at a conference held in Hanoi on December 18.

The meeting of the Vietnam-China Cooperation Committee for Management of Land Border Gates in Hanoi on December 18 (Photo: qdnd.vn)

The event was the sixth meeting of the Vietnam-China Cooperation Committee for Management of Land Border Gates and reviewed five years of the implementation of the committee’s working regulations.

It was co-chaired by head of the Vietnamese sub-committee Lt. Gen. Hoang Xuan Chien – member of the Party Central Committee and Commander of the Border Guard High Command, and head of the Chinese sub-committee Zhang Guangzhi.

Over the last five years, the two sub-committees have held five conferences on a rotational basis and conducted three joint surveys of border gates. Their specialists have held talks to discuss measures for implementing the agreement on border gates and a framework deal on border gate cooperation.

The two sides have conducted studies on the “one-stop shop” model at the pair of Vietnam’s Lao Bao and Laos’ Densavan international border gates, and plan to develop the pairs of Huu Nghi-You Yi Guan and Lao Cai-Hekou into “role model border gates”, per an agreement between the sides.

The working groups of seven Vietnamese border provinces and the border gate offices of China’s Guangxi and Yunnan provinces have maintained meetings to resolve issues and discuss cooperation.

They agreed that from 2019 to 2024, the two sides will press ahead with upgrading the designated border gate pairs.

The sub-committees will propose their respective countries’ Governments assign the two foreign ministries to work with ministries and sectors to consider revisions and supplements to border gate regulations.

They also agreed to boost sharing of information and update each other about their countries’ legal regulations on exit-entry and export-import, thus facilitating people and businesses’ activities.

Also on December 18, head of the Chinese sub-committee Zhang Guangzhi met with Deputy Defence Minister Sen. Lt. Gen. Nguyen Chi Vinh, member of the Party Central Committee and the Central Military Commission.

Zhang informed his host about the outcomes of the conference, noting that the two sub-committees worked out several effective solutions, especially in exit-entry management and smuggling and trade fraud prevention. They also reached consensus on some measures for facilitating customs clearance, improving the business climate in border gates’ areas and upgrading transport infrastructure to serve export activities.

Deputy Minister Vinh lauded the conference’s outcomes and asked the two sides to continue working to step up collaboration in border gate management.

Vietnam and China share almost 1,450km of border, including about 1,065km on land and 383.9km on water. There are 32 pairs of border gates along the boundary at present.-VNA