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Vietnam to boost China highway links
Vietnam plans to boost transport and trade links with neighbouring China by upgrading a major northern highway and sea port by 2020 under a multi-billion-dollar proposal announced Thursday.
The new "economic corridor" is part of an emerging web of road links, many part-funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), connecting China and regional countries that also include Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.
Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has signed off on a plan for a US$1.4 billion six-lane expressway from Hanoi to the border town of Lang Son, to connect with a road to Nanning in China's Guangxi province.
The plan -- part of the Chinese-Vietnamese "two corridors, one economic belt" initiative agreed in 2005 -- was announced on the official Vietnamese government website and in local media.
Vietnam, with ADB funding, is already upgrading its Hanoi road and rail links to the northwestern border town of Lao Cai, to speed up the flow of goods and people to Kunming in southern China's Yunnan province.
It also plans to build up its main northern deep-sea container port of Hai Phong to boost annual capacity to 25 million tons by 2010 and 40 million tons by 2020, said the official government website.
Work is set to begin this year on a $1.2 million six-lane expressway between Hanoi and Haiphong, which was announced in previous plans.
Another 114-kilometer road will link the capital's Noi Bai International Airport with the northern harbour of Ha Long City, the official website said.
Both countries hope closer economic integration will provide southern China with alternative sea access routes while boosting economic development in Vietnam's poor mountainous north.
Under the newly announced plans, both countries will have three international border points, four other border gates, 13 joint border markets and an economic cooperation zone at Lang Son in Vietnam.
Thanhnien
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