Several cooperation agreements were signed at the fifth meeting of a working group between Vietnam’s four northern mountainous provinces of Ha Giang, Lao Cai, Lai Chau and Dien Bien and China’s Yunnan province on December 18.

They include an agreement on coordination regulations on border labour management between Ha Giang and Yunnan, and another on cooperation between Ha Giang’s Dong Van Karst Plateau and Yunnan’s Shi Lin (Stone Forest) National Park.

Speaking at the event in Ha Giang, Yunnan’s Deputy Governor Gao Shu Xun said that the relations between his province and the Vietnamese border localities have seen strong developments in all fields over the past years.

In the time to come, Yunnan will continue its cooperation with the Vietnamese side in order to expand and further enhance the China-Vietnam comprehensive strategic cooperation partnership, he added.

According to Vice Chairman of the Ha Giang provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Minh Tien, after the fourth meeting held in Yunnan in June 2012, both sides have sped up cooperation in the management of border and border gates so as to maintain peace and stability and facilitate the travel of humans and goods exchanges.

Deputy Foreign Minister Dang Minh Khoi asserted that enhancing the friendship and mutually-beneficial cooperation between border localities is important to the two countries’ relations so due attention and support have always been given to the work.

Since 2012, the localities’ total import-export value has hit nearly 5 billion USD and their collaboration in building transport infrastructure has made progress.-VNA