With more than 227 km of border line with China, the northern mountainous province of Ha Giang is striving to leverage its potentials for cross-border trade development, one of the three economic forces to lift the province from poverty.

Ha Giang shares one pair of international border gate and three pairs of auxiliary border gates with Yunnan and Guangxi provinces of China, along with 30 border and border gate markets.

Dam Van Bong, Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, said that in a bid to promote commodity exchanges, the locality will focus on building trade facilities at border gates such as warehouse and upgrading infrastructure at border markets.

The province will also seek investment for upgrading local roads to improve connection with national highways.

In addition, Ha Giang looks to enhance the economic nexus with localities in the northeastern and northwestern regions to create a supply chain with high values for domestic consumption and exports.

Cross-border trade activities have made contribution to boosting production and improving the provincial socio-economic development, Nguyen Van Son, Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee said.

From 2010, the total import-export revenue through the provincial border gates reached nearly 1.3 billion USD. While the figure for 2010 was only 195.2 million USD, the first three months of this year alone saw nearly 300 million USD worth of goods going through Ha Giang’s border.-VNA