Even though the inauguration of Kim Thanh bridge, scheduled for Sept. 2, is still days away, as many as 50 investors have already registered to lease lots of land at the Kim Thanh trade centre on the border with China.

The bridge spans the Red River to link the Kim Thanh trade centre in the northern border province of Lao Cai with the Beishan trade centre in Yunnan province in China.

The concrete bridge has been designed to be extremely durable and capable of carrying heavy trucks up to 120 tonnes and withstand major earthquakes up to number eight on the Richter scale.

The bridge, with four lanes and a pavement on either side, is expected to be used by between 400 and 500 heavy trucks a day travelling from Kunming province in China to Lao Cai and then on to Hanoi and Haiphong port city.

The Head of the Lao Cai Border Gate’s Economic Zone Management Board, Doan Dinh Khoi, said the new bridge and the Kim Thanh trading and industrial zone would turn this rural area into a “busy outlet for Vietnamese goods”.

The majority of the 50 registered investors come from Ho Chi Minh City and the southern provinces and have ambitious plans for shopping centres, supermarkets, cold storage warehouses, exhibition centres, bonded warehouses and five-star hotels.

The northern border province of Lao Cai has the potential to become the northwestern region’s socio-economic hub, with help from the Kim Thanh bridge and the Kim Thanh border gate trade zone projects, say economists.

Meanwhile, the authorities have described the bridge as a friendship project between Vietnam and China that will also promote trade relations amongst countries in the region./.