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Vietnam to upgrade border warehouses
Vietnam is seeking to reverse their decline in trade with Cambodia and Laos, jump-starting plans yesterday to build 116 warehouses near border gates they share with their neighbors.
According to a Vietnamese online news outlet, Vietnam’s Industry and Trade Ministry agreed to the plan to build these warehouses on January 23, and they will finish the project by 2035.
Their goal is to develop professional and modern warehouses with better logistics capabilities for the import and export of goods at the border.
“The warehousing system will promote sustainable development of import and export activities along the common borders, especially exports at border gates along border lines between Vietnam and the two countries,” the ministry was quoted as saying.
“By 2035, all border gates along these border lines will have a completed warehousing system, including 116 existing and newly built warehouses, to meet all warehousing demands for the import and export of goods and provide synchronous logistics services to promote the rapid and sustainable development of import and export activities.”
Tran Manh Tiep, trade attaché with the trade office of the Vietnamese embassy in Phnom Penh, confirmed the plan, saying that 53 warehouses will be built along the border by 2025.
“With this plan, it will be a big help to boost our trade relationship, even bigger, especially cross border trade and [it will] also help the import and export process,” Mr. Tiep said.
In late December, Prime Minister Hun Sen paid a two-day state visit to Vietnam to push forward trade-boosting efforts.
In October, Cambodia called on Vietnam to withdraw quarantine and biosecurity measures for its exports. Both sides are eager to hit the $5 billion trade target, of which both governments pledged in 2012.
According to Vietnam’s Industry and Trade Ministry, the warehousing systems will have enough capacity to store imported and exported goods near border gates. They said 80 percent of the warehouses will be required to provide important and necessary logistical services, such as storage, handling, inspection and implementation of customs procedures.
The plan will see both sides upgrade at least one existing warehouse on the border.
“All goods under the warehousing system will be inspected for quality, food hygiene, safety and other related standards,” the ministry said.
According to Mr. Tiep, bilateral trade between Cambodia and Vietnam decreased slightly last year, dropping to a total of $3 billion – $2.2 billion in exports to Cambodia and $725.7 billion in imports.
Each represents a decline of eight percent and 24 percent respectively, compared with 2015.
“With this warehouse construction, I do believe that we will see more big increases of our exchange for the years to come,” Mr. Tiep added.
Source: http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/35458/vietnam-to-upgrade-border-warehouses/