Data from China's General Administration of Customs showed that in the first 11 months of 2024, bilateral trade between China and Vietnam stood at 1,673.7 billion yuan, 15.3 percent higher than the same period in 2023. According to the latest forecast of the General Administration of Customs of Vietnam, bilateral trade between Vietnam and China will account for nearly one-third of the country's total trade in 2024. It is believed that multilateral and bilateral cooperation agreements and policy dividends such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the 3.0 version of the China-Asean Free Trade Area are providing more opportunities for China and Vietnam to deepen economic and trade cooperation.

China is Vietnam's largest trading partner, and Vietnam is China's largest trading partner in ASEAN. Data from the General Administration of Customs of Vietnam show that in the first 11 months of 2024, the turnover of fruits and vegetables and aquatic products exported from Vietnam to China reached 4.1 billion US dollars and 1.4 billion US dollars, respectively, up 28.7% and 23.2% from the same period in 2023. According to the latest data cited by VietnamNet, China is currently Vietnam's largest vegetable and fruit export market, accounting for 65.2 percent of the country's total vegetable and fruit exports.

At the Lang Son International Port in Vietnam facing China's Pingxiang Friendship Port, more than 1,000 trucks loaded with goods from the two countries go through customs every day. There are more than 1,000 jobs in the port area involved in customs clearance and goods transfer. In recent years, the Vietnamese government has introduced preferential policies, simplified approval procedures, reduced taxes and fees, and provided more support for Vietnamese enterprises engaged in border trade.

Vietnam is committed to building an international port economic demonstration zone and developing a new platform for developing trade with China. Vietnam's Lang Son Province Tongdeng Port Economic Zone cargo transfer area under construction project land 144 hectares, planning to build international cargo storage center, super large cold chain warehouse and container yard and other important facilities, after completion can park 1,500 trucks at the same time, will greatly improve the agriculture, forestry and fisheries and other fresh goods transfer storage capacity. Liu Mingying, deputy director of the Department of Industry and Trade of Lang Son Province, said that Lang Son province alone has 12 international ports connected with China, and the province is accelerating the construction of land-linked infrastructure and supporting industries, so that the international port economic demonstration zone can help the in-depth development of economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.

At present, road transport is still the main mode of export of Vietnamese agricultural products to China, especially during the harvest season, truck transport is more busy. According to Vietnam's People Daily, the daily traffic of trucks in Lang Son province in 2024 is about 1,300 vehicles, an increase of 18.2% year-on-year. Most of Vietnam's agricultural products such as lychee, durian, dragon fruit and tapioca flour are sold to the Chinese market. In order to improve land transport conditions, Vietnam has upgraded some of the main roads connected to the border crossings with China. A number of highway projects linking Lang Son to Hanoi, Haiphong and Quang Ninh provinces, as well as some national highway reconstruction and expansion projects, are being accelerated and will greatly improve the efficiency of road transport when completed.

At present, China and Vietnam are speeding up the connectivity of transport infrastructure. The two sides have announced that they will cooperate to build three standard gauge railways, namely Lang Son - Hanoi, Lao CAI - Hanoi - Hai Phong and Mong CAI - Ha Long - Hai Phong. Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Thanh recently visited the Lao CAI - Hanoi - Haiphong Railway project in Vietnam's Lao CAI province and said that the railway project is expected to start by the end of 2025 and be completed by the end of 2030. Fan Mingzheng stressed that the design of train speed and gauge should ensure smooth docking with Chinese railways, and maintain close cooperation with the Chinese side during the design and construction of the project.

The economies of China and Vietnam are highly complementary. Vietnam has identified China as a key export market for its agricultural, forestry and aquatic products, and its imports of steel, fabrics, fibers and electronic devices from China provide important support for Vietnam's development of manufacturing and stable supply chains. Le Guofang, former deputy director of the Industry and Trade Center of Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade, said that many Chinese products are of good quality and competitive in price. Vietnam and China have the geographical advantage of being connected by land, and with the increasing demand of the Vietnamese market, there is great room for growth in trade and investment between the two countries.