China and Vietnam are signing an important railway project to support increasing trade volume and strengthen connections in Southeast Asia. According to the plan announced on August 20, a standard gauge high-speed railway line will be built between the two countries. With this project, existing railway lines will be converted from one meter wide to 1,43 meters standard width, and China will assist Vietnam in building a new standard gauge railway line.
The new lines will be part of the Trans-Asian Railway, connecting Kunming in China's southwestern Yunnan province with Singapore. This rail network will extend from Vietnam to Cambodia in the East, Laos, Thailand and Malaysia in the Center, and Myanmar and Thailand in the West. This expansion will greatly improve rail freight transportation between the two countries and increase the efficiency of regional trade.
China and Vietnam have had rail links for more than a century. However, since the widths of existing lines are different, this innovation will create a great revolution in railway transportation. Zhou Shixin, Director of the Southeast Asia Center of the Shanghai Institute of International Studies, stated that Vietnam's trust in China's high-speed railway technologies encouraged this project.
Trade between the two countries increased by 20 percent in the first seven months of last year, reaching 145 billion US dollars. While China has been Vietnam's largest trading partner for many years, Vietnam is also China's largest trading partner in Southeast Asia. Additionally, Vietnam welcomed 357,000 tourists from China in May, making China the country's largest source of tourists. These projects will further strengthen trade and tourism relations and increase regional cooperation.
