Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam and China agreed toenhance cooperation in the management of border gates along their border at aconference held in Hanoi on December 18.

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

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

Over the last five years, the two sub-committeeshave held five conferences on a rotational basis and conducted three jointsurveys of border gates. Their specialists have held talks to discuss measuresfor implementing the agreement on border gates and a framework deal on bordergate cooperation.

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

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

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

The sub-committees will propose their respectivecountries’ Governments assign the two foreign ministries to work withministries and sectors to consider revisions and supplements to border gateregulations.

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

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

Zhang informed his host about the outcomes ofthe conference, noting that the two sub-committees worked out several effectivesolutions, especially in exit-entry management and smuggling and trade fraudprevention. They also reached consensus on some measures for facilitatingcustoms clearance, improving the business climate in border gates’ areas andupgrading transport infrastructure to serve export activities.

Deputy Minister Vinh lauded the conference’soutcomes and asked the two sides to continue working to step up collaborationin 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 ofborder gates along the boundary at present.-VNA