Hanoi (VNA) – A Vietnamese delegation led by Deputy Minister of Agricultureand Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam has visited and held meetings with theadministrations and customs departments of China’s Guangxi and Yunnan provincesin an effort to facilitate farm produce exports via northern border gates ofVietnam.

The movewas to implement the Prime Minister’s Official Dispatch No 492/CD-TTg, dated May 31, 2023 thatdemands urgent measures be taken to ease congestion and promote agriculturalproduct exports via the northern border gates.

At separatetalks, the Vietnamese delegation, including officials from the Ministry ofAgriculture and Rural Development (MARD), the General Department of VietnamCustoms, and some provinces with large exports to and border gates with China,and the administrations of Guangxi and Yunnan agreed to order customs andquarantine units of their respective border gates frequently share informationabout customs clearance procedures and give priority to the fresh produce enteringin the harvest season to reduce congestion and boost farm produce trade viaborder gates of the Chinese provinces.

The twosides agreed to hold annual cross-border trade promotion fairs in Guangxi,Yunnan, and adjacent Vietnamese provinces on a rotational basis to create more partnershipchances to their businesses.

Theyconcurred to promote the establishment of the Vietnam - Guangxi and Vietnam -Yunnan associations of agricultural product businesses.

They alsodecided to assign relevant units to compile a memorandum of understanding on agriculturalcooperation between the MARD and the Guangxi and Yunnan administrations. The MoUis expected to be signed at the China - ASEAN Expo this September.

At themeetings with the two Chinese provinces’ customs departments, Vietnamese and Chineseofficials reached consensus on some measures to improve customs clearance capacitysuch as increasing the prioritised businesses, applying the one-stop-shop modelto export and import, exchanging the forms of quarantine certificates, andconsidering the pilot implementation of a smart border gate system.

Both sideswill also assign units to act as liaison bodies to tackle bottlenecks incustoms clearance for agro-forestry-aquatic products in a timely manner, and holdrotational annual meetings in every November between the Guangxi and Yunnancustoms departments, the MARD, and relevant agencies of Vietnam to reviewcooperation results in a year and set up orientations for the following year.

They agreedto propose the Chinese General Administration of Customs to permit more fruitsand aquatic products of Vietnam to enter this country, licence more Vietnamese exportersof agricultural and aquatic products, and allow raw aquatic products to beexported via border gates of Yunnan.

During theVietnamese delegation’s visit, a business matching forum also took place,connecting 17 major agricultural and aquatic product companies of Vietnam withalmost 120 Chinese firms./.