Publish soon the official opening of bilateral border gates Chi Ma – Ai Diem

Import-export activities at Chi Ma - Ai Diem border gate. Photo: H.Nụ

Lang Son Provincial People's Committee said that in January 2015, Ai Diem Border Gate was approved by the State Council of the People’s Republic of China as a national border gate of type 1 (equivalent to a main border gate). Over the past 3 years, China has focused on investment for building infrastructure at the border gate. Now, it has been completed, basically. Besides that, China has completed the work of checking before acceptance at national level, and is waiting for the office of China national border gate for getting approval in order to put it into operation and use.

At present China has arranged the forces, including the Border, Customs and Inspection and Quarantine forces, in order to meet the requirements of inspection and controlling import and export at border gates.

On the Vietnamese side, the People's Committee of Lang Son province has invested in infrastructure and put into use some basic projects to meet the needs of import and export goods through the border. Inter-branch control No.1 has been completed and expected to be put into operation and trial operation in August, 2015. The People's Committee of Lang Son province has also arranged forces to perform tasks at border gates, including Customs, Border Protection, Quarantine (Health, Animal, Plant), and State Treasury collection.

According to the reports of the competent forces at the border gates, from the beginning of 2018 until now, the situation of border security and order in the area of Chi Ma border gate has been maintained, and has facilitated export and import activities. Competent forces often coordinate to control trails, and the shortcuts along the border in order to fight against smuggling activities in the area.

However, due to the border trade policy in China as well as the unpublished bilateral border gate Chi Ma (Vietnam) - Ai Diem (China), the export turnover through the area decreased by 47.1% over the same period in 2017; The fee collections reached nearly 12 billion VND by implementing the Decision No. 53/2016/QD-UBND; the export tax collection achieved over 10 billion VND. Up to now, the essential infrastructure in the border gate area has been basically finalized and completed with road connection across the border.

According to the People's Committee of Lang Son province, the unit has coordinated with China to speed up infrastructure construction. It is forecasted that the two sides will jointly organize the ceremony of officially opening the bilateral border gates, Chi Ma (Vietnam) and Ai Diem (China) in early September 2018.

The People's Committee of Lang Son province (Vietnam) - Guangxi (China) have jointly informed each other about the situation and construction progress of key projects in the border area of Chi Ma and Ai Diem, in order to quickly promote and publish the bilateral border gates.

The facilitation of export and import activities, as well as entry and exit to the country through Chi Ma border gate, is for the promotion of socio-economic development in the border region, contributing to building a borderline of peace, friendship, stability, and cooperation. The People's Committee of Lang Son Province suggested the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to issue a diplomatic note to exchange with China in order to urge the publishing of the official opening ceremony of the bilateral border gates, Chi Ma - Ai Diem, in early September of 2018; In particular, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development should focus on arranging forces and equipment to serve for inspection and control at Chi Ma border gate in accordance with standards and operational lines of a main border gate; The Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Planning and Investment should pay attention to financial considerations and allocate funding sources for supporting Lang Son province to continue investing and building a number of key projects at Chi Ma border gate.