Posted on 18 Jul 2008
Vietnam to boost China highway links
Vietnam
plans to boost transport and trade links with neighbouring China by
upgrading a major northern highway and sea port by 2020 under a
multi-billion-dollar proposal announced Thursday.
The new "economic corridor" is part of an emerging
web of road links, many part-funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB),
connecting China and
regional countries that also include Myanmar,
Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.
Vietnam's
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has signed off on a plan for a US$1.4 billion
six-lane expressway from Hanoi to the border
town of Lang Son, to connect with a road to Nanning in China's
Guangxi province.
The plan -- part of the Chinese-Vietnamese "two
corridors, one economic belt" initiative agreed in 2005 -- was announced
on the official Vietnamese government website and in local media.
Vietnam,
with ADB funding, is already upgrading its Hanoi
road and rail links to the northwestern border town of Lao
Cai, to speed up the flow of goods and people to Kunming
in southern China's Yunnan province.
It also plans to build up its main northern deep-sea
container port of Hai Phong to boost annual capacity to 25 million tons by 2010
and 40 million tons by 2020, said the official government website.
Work is set to begin this year on a $1.2 million six-lane
expressway between Hanoi and Haiphong, which was announced in previous
plans.
Another 114-kilometer road will link the capital's Noi Bai International Airport
with the northern harbour
of Ha Long City, the
official website said.
Both countries hope closer economic integration will provide
southern China with
alternative sea access routes while boosting economic development in Vietnam's poor
mountainous north.
Under the newly announced plans, both countries will have
three international border points, four other border gates, 13 joint border
markets and an economic cooperation zone at Lang Son in Vietnam.
