Besides preferential policies to call for domestic and foreign investors, the province concentrated on building infrastructure facilities and human resource development. It has invested hundreds of billion VND in building the 300ha Kim Thanh Trade Centre.

In the second quarter of 2007, a memorandum of understanding on implementing the “one-stop” customs clearance at the Lao Cai-Hekou International Border Gate was signed in order to facilitate border-crossing goods transport between Viet Nam and China.

Early this year, the Vietnamese Prime Minister urged Lao Cai province to enhance trade activities through the Lao Cai border gate in order to make it an important buffer zone in the northwestern region.

The province has actively joined the project to develop the Kunming-Lao Cai-Ha Noi-Hai Phong economic corridor and the Great Mekong Sub-region (GMS), of which the Lao Cai-Hekou Border Gate will become the biggest gate for goods exchange between China’s southwestern region and Viet Nam and other ASEAN countries.

Between now and 2010, the province will upgrade a standardised railway linking Lao Cai and Hai Phong and build the Ha Noi-Lao Cai Expressway.

Monthly import and export turnover through the Lao Cai International Border Gate has so far this year attained 500 million USD, representing a year-on-year increase of 70 percent. At present, 500 domestic and foreign businesses are operating in the border gate area.