Plans for a $8 billion train link from Vietnam’s main northern port city to the Chinese border were approved by the country’s parliament on Wednesday, strengthening ties between the two communist nations and facilitating trade.
According to an AFP journalist in the country’s rubber-stamp National Assembly, 95 percent of lawmakers supported the railway’s construction in a vote.
Some of Vietnam’s major manufacturing centers, which are home to multinational behemoths like Samsung, Foxconn, Pegatron, and others that depend heavily on a steady supply of parts from China, will be traversed by the new rail route.
The route will stretch 390 kilometres (around 240 miles) from the port city of Hai Phong to the mountainous city of Lao Cai, which borders China’s Yunnan province, and will also run through the capital Hanoi.
China will provide some funding through loans for the project, which is expected to cost more than $8 billion.
It is one of two railway lines to China that Vietnam plans as part of its “Two Corridors, One Belt” initiative, which connects to Beijing’s Belt and Road global infrastructure programme.
