Hanoi [Vietnam], January 10 (ANI): Vietnam Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh on Sunday assigned ministries, sectors and localities to work with China to speed up customs clearance, striving for no congestion of trucks carrying goods for export at border gates before the Lunar New Year.

Due to tightened COVID-19 measures and technical difficulties, thousands of container trucks have been stuck at Vietnam's border gates with China since mid-December.

Citing Vietnam News Agency (VNA), Vietnam reported that the request was made by the deputy PM at an online meeting on handling congested goods at the northern border gates, on January 8.

This is the second meeting within two weeks chaired by Deputy PM Thanh on this issue.

As of January 7 morning, the number of vehicles stuck at the border gates was 3,609, down 2,484 compared to ten days ago, in which, there were 2,015 vehicles in Lang Son, and 1,260 vehicles in Quang Ninh, reported Vietnam .

Thanh asked the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to continue working with localities, associations and enterprises to promote processing of agricultural products, and urged the Ministry of Industry and Trade to actively implement solutions to expand markets, promote the distribution and domestic consumption, especially through supermarkets, trade centres and traditional markets.

Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Ngoc Dong affirmed that it is possible to export via rail and sea to China. Particularly for railways, it is possible to transport 80 containers of goods per day into this market, but it must be officially exported and have full records, added VNA.

Le Quang Trung, Deputy General Director of the Vietnam Maritimes Corporation (VIMC) affirmed if exporting enterprises can meet requirements on procedures and want to switch the transport model for their export goods from land to sea route, the VIMC and logistics enterprises are ready to deploy ships to Quang Ninh and Hai Phong city to transport agricultural products to China. Shipping enterprises are also ready to reduce freight and logistics costs, reported Vietnam . (ANI)