HANOI (Reuters) -Vietnam and China signed 10 agreements ranging from agriculture cooperation to cross-border QR code payments on Sunday, during Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s three-day visit to Hanoi, as the two neighbours seek to boost ties.
China is Vietnam’s largest trading partner and a vital source of imports for its manufacturing sector, with bilateral trade jumping 21% for the first three quarters from the same period last year to $148 billion.
The signing ceremony followed Li’s meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh. Li and Vietnam’s Communist Party chief, President To Lam, agreed on Saturday to boost economic ties, farm produce cooperation.
The Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh asked China to boost agricultural trade with Vietnam, open doors to Vietnamese farm produce and enhance customs clearance at borders, state broadcaster Vietnam Television (VTV) reported.
Vietnam and China also signed a document on updating progress on cross-border railway links related to site survey.
“The Vietnamese prime minister also suggested the two countries cooperate to implement signed documents on railway links, modern railway development effectively,” VTV reported.
The two Asian neighbours have repeatedly showed interest in boosting rail links but have not announced concrete plans or the estimated costs to upgrade connections.
The main route relies on tracks connecting Kunming in the southern Chinese province of Yunnan to Hanoi and the Vietnamese port city of Haiphong. That railway was built by the French during their colonisation of Vietnam more than a century ago and is still in use in Vietnam. China has replaced its route with high-speed connections.
On Saturday, the National Payment Corp of Vietnam and China’s UnionPay International signed an agreement to deploy cross-border payment between the two countries.
(Reporting by Thinh Nguyen, Phuong Nguyen, Khanh Vu; Editing by Kim Coghill, William Mallard and Michael Perry)
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