Cross-border business busy after China’s border reopening

Trucks travel through Kim Thanh International Bordergate in the northern province of Lao Cai.(Photo: thanhnien.vn)

As soon as China reopened its border on January 8, business of Vietnam and China turned busy again after a nearly three-year disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Deputy head of the border station based at the Kim Thanh International Bordergate in the northern province of Lao Cai Senior Lieutenant Hoang Minh Du said that from January 8, the volume of goods traded via the border gate increased daily.

Particularly, on January 11, the border gate saw 71 trucks carrying goods for export and 158 trucks carrying imports goods.

Before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, about 200 trucks travelled through the border gate daily.

However, at the border gate, China still mainains the delivery of import and export goods by specialised drivers who can drive trucks through the border gate from China to Vietnam and vice versa but the drivers are not required to wear protective clothes anymore, according to Du.

The goods-checking stage is also removed so the delivery of import and export goods between enterprises of the two countries is convenient and fast, he said.

In the border province of Lang Son, parking areas at the Tan Thanh Border Gate and the Huu Nghi International Border Gate are filled with trucks that carry products for export.

The truck drivers are no longer required to wear protective clothing and they can talk to each other when queuing for check-in procedures.
Nguyen Thi Ngoc Nhung, a representative of the Hoa Cuong Fruit Import-Export Co., Ltd from the southern province of Long An, said that her company exports five to six containers of jackfruit and dragon fruit to China every day through border gates in Lang Son.

Previously, once reaching the border gate, her trucks had to wait for at least a half day and drivers must open containers for authorities to check goods and take samples for COVID-19 testing.

Thus, her company had to spend an additional 2 - 4 million VND (85-170 USD) for each truck at that time.

From January 8 to now, businesses have saved tens of millions of dong every day when they no longer have to pay for disease prevention and control, Nhung told Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper.

Huynh Tan Dat, Deputy Director of the Plant Protection Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that China is the most important export market of Vietnam's agricultural sector, including the fruit and vegetable industry.

Dat said that if Vietnam's agricultural products and fruits meet requirements on food safety, quality, and product design, the country has a great opportunity to export to China.

As Vietnam and China share a long border with numerous border gates, Vietnam has a competitive advantage in terms of price and transportation costs, Dat said, adding that the export of Vietnamese agricultural products to China, particularly durian, banana, and sweet potato will grow strongly this year.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien, Vietnam's exports of agricultural goods and products to China account for about 19.2% of the market share of goods and agricultural products imported to the country.

China's border reopening is a great opportunity for Vietnamese goods and agricultural products to penetrate deeply into that market, Tien said./.