China has agreed to extend daily business hours for customs clearance services at Huu Nghi International Border Gate, which links Vietnam’s Lang Son Province with China, in a bid to satisfy a surging demand for shipping goods via the gate, said a local official.

The northern border gate now offers customs services from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm, one hour longer than before, Le Van Thang, head of the management board of Dong Dang-Lang Son border gate economic zone, said on Friday.

China began relaxing COVID-19 restrictions and resuming import-export activities via the border gates of Tan Thanh and Huu Nghi, which link the two countries.

Besides, Vietnamese dragon fruits and other fruits and farm produce from other countries entered their harvest season last month.

Also, the demand to import input materials, equipment from China to serve domestic production has soared sharply.

These factors fueled a demand for shipping goods through Vietnam-China border gates, Thang explained.

The authorities of Vietnam and China therefore sought measures to facilitate border trade, including prolonging the business hours at the border gates.

The above-mentioned management board said it will also coordinate with traffic police and border guards to regulate the traffic flow on National Highway 1A which has been overwhelmed by a huge volume of container trucks waiting to enter the Huu Nghi border gate to reach China.

For a long-term plan, the management board will work with relevant units to make the most of parking lots to accommodate container trucks waiting for customs clearance services, while teaming up with the China side to remove obstacles facing the customs clearance process.

The board also proposed the reopening of sub-border gates such as Binh Nghi, Na Hinh, and Po Nhung to facilitate the customs clearance process.

A few days ago, lots of container trucks queued up along National Highway 1A, especially at the Huu Nghi border gate area to wait for undergoing the customs clearance procedures.

This posed a traffic safety risk in the area.

It recently took around 4-5 days for a certain number of container trucks to get the customs clearance done, instead of only 1-2 days as before, Hoang Thi Le, a representative of Hoang Duc Phong Transport Company, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

The long waiting time drove up businesses’ logistic costs and led to a shortfall of trucks with cold storage for transporting exported fruits.

Hence, the company proposed the competent forces take measures to handle the issues, Le said.

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