La Lay International Border Gate in Quang Tri Province, north-central Vietnam looks like an abandoned construction site, dusty during the dry season, and muddy on rainy days although it became an international border gate 10 years earlier.

The condition of the border gate is hindering travel and trade.

La Lay International Border Gate with an area of 20 hectares includes many items, specifically a checkpoint, a cargo inspection area, and roads connecting the border gate and National Highway 15D, among others.

At the checkpoint, which carries a price tag of VND114 billion (US$4.7 million) and was put into operation in October last year, only the area for imports has come on stream while that for exports is not yet in service due to a shortage of traffic connection. 

The four-lane area for imports now serves the clearance of both imports and exports, thus wasting part of the facility and affecting the efficiency of customs officials.

A road leading to the area for exports is under construction, hindering vehicles entering the checkpoint.

“Stones thrown out [from the road construction] hit our vehicle’s oil tank and repeatedly damaged tires,” the manager of a transport company complained.

The company conducts an average of 80 passes through the border gate every day. With better infrastructure, it can save fuel, vehicle repair costs, and time.

A road linking to the checkpoint has not been concreted. Vehicles have to travel on a bumpy road full of large potholes.

As many semi-trailers with a capacity of 40-50 metric tons each transporting coal from Laos to Vietnam often run on the road, it has become worse. 

Local authorities have mobilized vehicles and equipment to level the road surface every few days, while customs clearance activities are conducted as normal. 

On rainy days, the working areas of customs officials and border guards are filled with mud carried by vehicles from the road.

“Whenever it rains, we have to wear boots and mud splashes onto us,” a border guard said. 

In the January-October period this year, 92,000 vehicles passed through La Lay International Border Gate, carrying cargo weighing two million metric tons, surging 300 percent year on year, said Hoang Ba Linh, head of the customs agency at the border gate. 

The border gate collected tax revenue totaling nearly VND490 billion ($20.1 million) in the 10-month period, reaching 212 percent of the target. The figure is expected to hit VND554 billion ($22.7 million) at the end of this year, Linh added.

Nguyen Ba Thuyet, deputy director of the Quang Tri Economic Zone Management Board, said they would strive to complete the road connecting to the checkpoint before the Lunar New Year holiday, or Tet, in February 2024.

Like us on Facebook or  follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!