Vietnamese, Cambodian border provinces step up cooperation
Vietnam and Cambodia have showed their determination to augment closer cooperation towards building a shared border of peace, friendship, collaboration, and development.
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| Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh (R) and Cambodian Deputy PM and Interior Minister Sar Kheng co-host the 10th meeting. |
In his opening speech, Minh highlighted the sound development of bilateral ties between the two nations under the motto of “good neighbourliness, traditional friendship, and comprehensive cooperation and long-term sustainability”. He said bilateral political ties have ceaselessly been fortified while the two-way trade exceeded US$4.6 billion last year and is expected to meet and surpass the US$5 billion target before 2020.
Bilateral border trade has grown steadily. The two sides have accelerated their negotiation toward the early signing of the Border Trade Agreement. 90% of the construction work of the Vietnam-Cambodia model market has been completed and the market is expected to be put in operation this year. Border gates have been upgraded with improved administrative processes as a result of reduced time for customs clearance, Minh said.
At the meeting, both sides incentivized investment and support for border localities and suggested both nations should beef up coordination in order to promptly cope with challenges in the fields concerned.
They underscored the importance of security-defence cooperation in maintaining peace and stability in each nation and expressed their resolve to forbid any hostile force to use their country’s territory to harm the other’s security.
Regarding the project to upgrade the border gates in Tan Nam of Tay Ninh province and Mon Chay of Pray Veng province, and give them “international” status, they pledged closer collaboration to open more border gates between the two countries in the near future.
The two sides hailed the efforts by relevant authorities in the land border demarcation and marker planting work, and said that they will finalize two documents to officially legalize 84% of border demarcation and marker planting-related work in 2019.
For his part, Sar Kheng applauded the great efforts by authorities and relevant agencies in the border provinces in jointly carrying out a cooperative plan set forth by the 9th meeting.
He noted that both sides have held regular meetings, intensified delegation exchange, and worked together on ensuring border security and order, as well as promoting exchange of goods, entry-exit activities and bilateral engagements in education, power supply, transport, as well as demarcation and planting of border markers.
The Cambodian Deputy PM said, “The primary goal is to maintain order and security, improve the efficiency of goods trade, and focus on the fields of agriculture, energy, tourism, cross-cultural exchange and border demarcation and marker planting work so as to make an important contribution to the constant development of the two countries’ border localities and the maintenance of peace and stability, meeting the aspirations of the two peoples."
