On the late afternoon of March 7, 2024, Viettel Post – the Postal Corporation of Viettel (Viettel Post, a subsidiary of the Military Industry and Telecommunications Group Viettel) officially signed an agreement with Bangtuong City (China) to establish a representative office and build a China-ASEAN agricultural commodities trading center.
Prior to that, Viettel Post also signed cooperation agreements with the authorities of Nam Ninh City to focus on developing logistics and cross-border trade between China and Vietnam.
With these agreements, Viettel Post will invest in the construction of two large logistics centers in China, including the ASEAN-Fruit Trading Center in Bangtuong City and the logistics center in Nam Ninh to promote and connect the trade between the two countries in various commodities such as agricultural products, seafood, medicinal materials…, and provide cross-border multifunctional transportation services by rail, road, and waterway between Vietnam and China.
These activities are also the preliminary steps to establish an association of enterprises in the field of import-export logistics between the two countries in order to optimize costs and shorten the time for goods circulation.
According to Viettel Post, during the period from March 5-7, 2024, the company worked with the city authorities and businesses in Nam Ninh and Bangtuong to reach several official agreements.
In particular, in Nam Ninh, Viettel Post signed a cooperation agreement with the Nam Ninh City authorities on developing logistics and cross-border trade between China and Vietnam. Viettel Post is the first logistics unit in Vietnam to cooperate with local authorities in China to improve cross-border transportation infrastructure in order to optimize logistics costs, reduce transportation time, enhance the competitive capacity for Vietnamese goods, and enhance the position of Vietnamese logistics in connecting ASEAN countries and China.
In Bangtuong City, Viettel Post also reached agreements with businesses on three main issues. Firstly, the two parties will cooperate to facilitate the multi-modal transport conversion between road and rail on the Yen Vien – Dong Dang – Bangtuong – Nam Ninh intermodal. Secondly, the two parties will collaborate to establish the China-ASEAN agricultural commodities trading center. Lastly, the two parties will learn, exchange designs, techniques, and technologies to jointly promote the implementation of smart border gate solutions.
Mr. Hoang Trung Thanh, General Director of Viettel Post, said that the investment promotion and cooperation activities of Viettel Post aim to implement the logistics infrastructure planning strategy, including park-logistics centers, bonded warehouses, container ports to connect raw material areas, agricultural areas, marine products with the railway transportation system, seaports, airports, and border gates to reduce the time and cost of goods circulation.
In a recent conversation with VnEconomy, Mr. Hoang Trung Thanh stated that Vietnam has a geographically advantageous position to become an international logistics hub connecting the ASEAN market with 700 million people, China with 1.4 billion people, and connecting the Indian Ocean and the Pacific countries with the shortest time and the most optimal cost.
Therefore, with many advantages in terms of geographical location, Vietnam needs to be oriented to become a global logistics hub, connecting goods between ASEAN and China, and the world; therefore, it must be built into a global logistics hub. Since it is a Hub, goods will be concentrated in Vietnam and then distributed to other directions through roads, railways, and waterways. According to Mr. Thanh, this will also contribute to promoting Vietnam’s position as an agricultural commodities trading center between Vietnam, China, ASEAN, and the world.
