Kim Thanh International Border Gate No 2, Lao Cai province. Vietnam has a significant opportunity to increase exports to China, especially when this country with huge consumption demand reopened its borders after the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo: VNA) Deputy Director of the Import – Export Department under the Ministry ofIndustry and Trade Tran Thanh Hai said that a project on Vietnam – Chinacross-border trade was being developed.
He said that China was no longer an easy market with import management measuresin place, urging enterprises to take action to grab opportunities andincrease exports to his huge market. Enterprises must meet requirements fromproduction to processing with a focus on ensuring quality, he added.
The first thing was to increase the awareness of both local authorities andenterprises about the official trade with China so that enterprises could havea correct and sufficient assessment of the Chinese market and change their thinkingin a more positive way, Nong Duc Lai, Trade Counselor of Vietnam to China said.
Lai said that there was significant room to increase export to China, citingstatistics that Vietnam’s export of vegetables and fruits to China accountedfor just 9% of this country’s annual import of these products. However, Chinawas tightening control over food hygiene and safety.
Localities should have long-term planning to orient enterprises to switch toofficial export and promote sustainable export with China, he said. He urgedenterprises to improve their understanding of the market and carefully studythe market before exporting goods to China.
Relevant ministries and agencies must cooperate with Chinese authorities tospeed up the process of completing procedures of opening markets for keyagricultural products, he said, adding that the investment should focus onprocessing to increase the added value of agricultural products.
Lai said that switching to official export was a top priority to minimise therisk of congestion at land border gates and also an optimal direction inpromoting sustainable exports with China.
Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien said that Vietnam hada significant opportunity to increase exports to China, especially whenthis country with huge consumption demand reopened its borders after theCOVID-19 pandemic.
Dien pointed out that the competition would be harsh when Vietnam remainedheavily dependent on raw materials from China.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien said thatbesides providing support to enterprises so that they could meet Chineserequirements, it was necessary to improve the information system to providemarket information to enterprises and promote trade of agricultural productsvia e-commerce channels.
Tien said that the opportunities were there, but enterprises and cooperativesmust prepare carefully in terms of market demand, investment inproduction, improving quality, ensuring food safety as well as reducing coststo increase competitiveness.
Chairman of the People’s Committee of Lang Son province Ho Tien Thieu said thatthe infrastructure system at border gates had not fully met the demand forimport and export activities, especially the warehouse system, parking stationsand logistics infrastructure.
Thieu said that with the growing demand for import and export activities, theamount of goods concentrated at the border gates was huge. In addition, Chinawas applying new requirements for labels, quality and origin traceability.
Thus, it was necessary to implement digital border gate platforms to improvecustoms clearance efficiency.
Thieu said that a digital border gate platform would help reduce the time forcustoms declaration from 30 minutes for a truck to 3-5 minutes.
Nguyen Anh Tai, Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Customs, saidthat it’s important to invest in improving the infrastructure for the bordergates and applying digital technologies in management.
Tai also urged negotiations to be accelerated for an agreement on mutualrecognition of quarantine which would help prevent congestion and make iteasier for the export of Vietnamese farm produces to China via border gates.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade’s statistics showed that the total importand export revenue of goods between Vietnam and China reached 175.56 billionUSD in 2022, presenting a rise of 5.47% against 2021.
Entering 2023, China was the only trade partner of Vietnam with a trade revenuehitting 10 billion USD.
Two-way trade hit 11.9 billion USD in the first quarter of this year, a drop of11.3% against the same period last year but the decrease was slowing downcompared to 24.33% in January and 18.72% in February – a positive signal. Theministry forecast that the export to China would improve in the second quarter.
Vietnam borders China in the north with a total terrestrial border length ofmore than 1,449 km where there are seven international border gates, sixbilateral gates and 21 sub-gates./.
VNA
