With the advantage of being adjacent to China, the province has two international border gates, one national border gate and nine secondary border gates, along with a very convenient railway and road system connecting major domestic economic centres.
Efforts to build a “floating port” on the border
In the last days of May at Huu Nghi International Border Gate (Cao Loc District) and Tan Thanh Border Gate (Van Lang District), images of long convoys carrying goods lined up along both sides of the entrance road of border gates completely reduced.
Director of Huu Nghi International Border Gate Customs Branch Ha Thi Kim Dung said in the past, whenever agricultural products such as watermelon or dragon fruit were harvested, there was often a backlog of goods at the gate, but the situation has now been fundamentally resolved.
Recently, Lang Son Province coordinated with Guangxi (China) to organise a ceremony to officially open specialised roads for transporting goods in area. This is an important economic event creating favourable conditions for tourism and trade development, improving capacity and customs clearance efficiency through Huu Nghi International Border Gate pair to meet the growing trade needs of traders of the two countries.
The official opening of specialised roads and customs clearance routes aims to contribute to strengthening the friendly exchange relationship and comprehensive cooperation in all fields between Lang Son Province and Guangxi (China).
In addition, the official opening of the customs clearance route will promote reform of administrative procedures in the fields of export, import, and entry, effectively implementing digital transformation and applying information technology in customs clearance and import and export activities. It will also create maximum convenience for passengers entering and exiting the country, organisations, individuals, and businesses with export, import, wharf, and yard business in the border gate area.
According to Deputy Head of the Management Board of Dong Dang-Lang Son Border Gate Economic Zone Hoang Khanh Duy, since 2021, the province has allocated more than 6,800 billion VND from budget capital to invest in technical infrastructure in key directions, priority has been given to works and projects that have pervasive effects and contribute to improving the efficiency of development of border-gate economic zones.
Specifically, the majority of investment capital is used to deploy and complete the technical infrastructure system at border gates — typically focusing on investing in the construction of the Huu Nghi International Border Gate building and the specialised routes for exporting and importing goods through milestones 1119-1120 at Huu Nghi International Border Gate.
These projects have been completed and put into use promptly, making an important contribution to promoting the effectiveness of the border gate economic zone, especially by creating favourable conditions for export and import activities of goods throughout the country through the province.
In addition to capital from the state budget, in recent years, Lang Son Province has focused on calling, attracting, and mobilising social capital from organisations and businesses to invest in implementing projects in the economic zone gate.
Specifically, in the 2016-2023 period, the total social capital invested in the border gate economic zone was more than 60,000 billion VND. In 2023 alone, 11,574 billion VND was mobilised to invest in 12 projects to upgrade and renovate infrastructure in the border gate.
Building a modern, dynamic and green border gate
With an area of 394 km2, Lang Son Border Gate Economic Zone is determined to be the main economic driving force of the province as well as the northeast region in general. In the 2016-2025 period, the province's border gate economic zone was selected by the Government as one of the key border gate economic zones to focus on development investment from the state budget.
Director of the Department of Industry and Trade Nguyen Dinh Dai said the Border Gate Economic Zone has attracted 154 projects since 2016, including 16 foreign investment projects with total investment capital of more than 87 million USD and 138 domestic investment projects with total investment capital of more than 16,000 billion VND.
The projects are mainly in the fields of infrastructure construction and commercial centres. In general, the projects have been effective in meeting the requirements of commercial and service activities and promoting the development of border trade.
Currently, the province continues to prepare conditions to attract investment for several key infrastructure projects to serve connecting logistics services in the area, such as attracting investment in 3 dry ports (located in the Regulation on logistics services in the area); the Vietnam dry port system development plan for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2050); and continuing to promote investment attraction in projects planned for export processing zones and non-tariff zones.
In 2024, the People's Committee of Lang Son Province will develop a pilot project to build a smart border gate applying a new form of import and export goods delivery based on the application of modern science and technology into the procedures for exporting and importing goods; expanding specialised roads for transporting goods in area markers 1119-1120 and area markers 1088/2-1089 from 4 lanes to 8 lanes; and investing in infrastructure and expanding yards in the border gate area.
Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Ho Tien Thieu affirmed that the building of a smart border gate model is in accordance with the policies and orientations of the Government and Lang Son Province as well as the goals of the national digital transformation programme.
It is expected to create favourable conditions for goods clearance activities between the two sides to proceed quickly, without contact, and without interruption, improving customs clearance efficiency and solving the problem of congestion in export and import goods, especially during peak times, thus reducing costs for businesses and traders.
The smart border gate model will also contribute to increasing customs clearance capacity and efficiency, enhancing the province's competitive advantage, and attracting export and import businesses.
Lang Son has set a goal that by 2025, Huu Nghi International Border Gate will become a "model border gate", Tan Thanh Border Gate will play the role of an "agricultural trade centre" and an economic and trade, services, and tourism zone of the province.
The international railway route at Dong Dang Station will become a highly competitive long-distance transport route based on smart, modern logistics and support services, commensurate with the development of railway services of ASEAN countries.
Currently, the province is building a mechanism to attract and mobilise about 14,000 billion VND of extra-budget capital to invest in projects in the border economic zone, striving to develop a modern, dynamic, and green border economic zone.
