View of the Conference at Lao Cai location.

The online Conference took place at 10 locations. i.e: Five provinces of Lao Cai, Ha Giang, Lai Chau, Dien Bien, Yunnan; the Commission for External Relations of the Party Central Committee of Vietnam, the International Liaison Department of the Party Central Committee of China, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam, the Vietnamese Embassy in China and the Chinese Embassy in Vietnam.

Attending the Conference on the Vietnamese side, there were comrades: Le Hoai Trung, Member of the Party Central Committee, Head of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for External Relations; Nguyen Minh Vu, alternate member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs; Pham Thanh Binh, the Ambassador of the Vietnamese Embassy to China; Nguyen Trung Hieu, Consul General of Vietnam in Kunming; Dang Xuan Phong, Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Lao Cai Provincial Party Committee and Secretaries of the Provincial Party Committees of Lai Chau, Ha Giang and Dien Bien provinces.

Attending the Conference on the Chinese side, there were comrades: Song Tao, Member of the Party Central Committee, Head of the Party Central Committee’s International Liaison Department; Ruan Cheng Pa, Member of the Party Central Committee, the Secretary of the Yunnan Provincial Party Committee, and Xiong Bo, the Ambassador of China to Vietnam.

This is the first time that the Secretary of the Provincial Party Committees of four northern border provinces of Vietnam and the Secretary of the Yunnan Provincial Party Committee (China) held a conference to evaluate the results of their cooperation in the past time, to suggest measures to overcome difficulties and obstacles in the cooperation process and agree on cooperation contents in the coming time, contributing to enhancing mutual understanding and trust, promoting substantive cooperation in all fields, jointly building a border of peace, stability and friendship, which would contribute to the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between Vietnam and China for stable, healthy and sustainable development.

In the past years, cooperation between 04 provinces of Vietnam and Yunnan province has produced positive results. Provincial Party Committees of Lao Cai and Ha Giang provinces have signed an agreement on implementing a friendship exchange between local Party Committees with Yunnan Provincial Party Committee. Provincial governments have also established a Joint Working Group that periodically holds conferences to exchange and discuss measures to promote cooperation between localities. Cooperation between provinces in the fields of: economy, trade, transportation, border management, culture, health, education, etc. is increasingly deepening.

Speaking at the Conference, leaders of central agencies and diplomatic missions of the two countries welcomed and highly appreciated the organization of the Conference to exchange ideas, promote exchanges and cooperation in many aspects between the border localities of the two countries; agreed to highly appreciate the cooperation results between Vietnam's localities and Yunnan province in recent years. It is hoped that in the coming time, the two sides would build a more effective model of coordination and cohesion in order to effectively exploit and utilize the potential and strengths of each locality, contributing to the socio-economic development of those provinces and the common stability, development and prosperity of the two countries.

Secretary of Lao Cai Provincial Party Committee Dang Xuan Phong speaks at the Conference (photo by: Cao Cuong)

Secretary of the Lao Cai Provincial Party Committee Dang Xuan Phong emphasized that the four border provinces of Vietnam and Yunnan province (China) have a long-standing friendly neighborly relationships. There are many similarities in terms of natural conditions, people’s livelihood and economy. Those provinces are located in strategic positions in the Belt and Road Initiative and the economic corridor of Kunming - Lao Cai - Hanoi - Hai Phong - Quang Ninh, so the linkage and development cooperation is an objective trend and inevitable position in order to effectively exploit the potential and strengths of each locality.

At the Conference, the Provincial Party Committees’ Secretaries strongly agreed on maintaining regular visits and contacts between the leaders of the provinces in order to enhance understanding, timely exchange and solve difficulties and problems in the cooperation process;  actively implementing friendly exchanges between agencies and organizations of the two sides; encouraging the implementation of people-to-people exchanges in border areas in various forms. All parties also agreed to continue to promote the role of the mechanism "Meeting of the Joint Working Group between the four northern border provinces of Vietnam and Yunnan province of China"; continue to thoroughly grasp the implementation of 3 legal documents on the land border between Vietnam and China. Given the complicatedly developed COVID-19 pandemic, on the basis of seriously implementing epidemic prevention measures, localities would actively discuss and apply measures to facilitate the customs communication, and create favorable conditions for goods clearance to promote exchanges and trade through border gates in these provinces.

At the end of the Conference, the Provincial Party Committees’ Secretaries of those five provinces signed the Minutes of the Conference as a basis for relevant agencies of the localities to implement specific cooperation contents./.