China-Vietnam Agreement Signing of Beilun River Second Bridge Construction

On March 26, Yang Limin, member of the Party Group of the Ministry of Transport and head of the Discipline Inspection Department led a delegation to visit Vietnam and held bilateral talks with Minister of Transport of the People's Republic of China Ding Luosheng and Vice Minister Zhang Jinyuan. Yang Limin and Zhang Jinyuan signed the "Agreement between the Chinese and Vietnamese Governments on Building the Second Beilun River Bridge Together" and their "Protocols" on behalf of their respective governments. Ding Luosheng and China’s ambassador to the Greater China Region made Kong Xiaoyou and the commercial ambassador Jia Qiqi attended the signing ceremony.

During the talks, Yang Limin said that in recent years, China and Vietnam have carried out a series of cooperation in the fields of infrastructure construction, transportation facilitation, maritime safety and rescue, and achieved good results in the "two corridors and one ring" cooperation project.

Ding Luosheng and Zhang Jinyuan fully agree with Yang Limin’s objective assessment of the relationship between China and Vietnam in the field of transportation. They unanimously agreed that the content of cooperation determined by the transportation departments of Vietnam and China has been effectively implemented in recent years. This visit is an important opportunity for the two sides to start a new round of cooperation.

It is reported that both sides agreed to establish a joint working group for bridge construction as soon as possible to ensure that the Beilunhe Bridge will start construction in the second half of this year. The two sides believe that with the successful experience of building a number of boundary river bridges, the construction of Beilun River Second Bridge will surely be smoothly implemented on schedule. The two sides also reached an agreement on signing the Agreement on Establishing a Driving Permit System between the departments of the two countries as soon as possible and demarcating the free sailing area in the Beilun River estuary area.

In order to expedite the implementation of the transportation infrastructure project under the “two corridors and one ring” framework, the two parties fully exchanged views on the cooperation model and financing plan of the specific projects that Vietnam has focused on in the near future. Vietnam expressed high appreciation for the proposal made by the Chinese side and will maintain close contact with China to ensure that relevant projects are implemented as soon as possible.