Officials from Vietnam's Lao Cai province (Photo: VNA)
Lao Cai (VNA) - Officials from Vietnam’s northern province of Lao Cai and Honghe county in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan held an video conference on May 22 regarding the COVID-19 situation in their localities and discussed increasing trade activities in the future.
Vice Chairman of the Lao Cai Provincial People’s Committee Hoang Quoc Khanh said Vietnam has reported no new COVID-19 infections in the community for more than one month. Of its total of 324 cases, 263 have been cured and there have been zero fatalities.
Lao Cai has worked closely with Yunnan to prevent the spread of the disease, in particular checking border gate areas, he said, adding that so far no transmissions have been reported via those gates.
He suggested the two sides enhance exchanges between relevant agencies to share difficulties and step up cross-border trade cooperation, as well as agree on measures to manage people, transport, and goods at border gates.
Luo Rongxu, Deputy Governor of Honghe county, agreed with Lao Cai’s proposals on cooperation.
He said the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected existing cooperation between the two sides. Honghe is now free of community transmission, but there is still a risk of a further outbreak.
Honghe will therefore set up a group specialising in promoting bilateral trade and cooperation, he added, suggesting increasing locality-to-locality collaboration.
He recommended actively cooperating in customs clearance and the trade of goods, including farm produce, as well as accelerating cross-border cooperation projects, increasing human resources cooperation and border management, and striving to restore production to previous levels./.
