BEIJING — The early connection of railway lines between China and Việt Nam will contribute more to promoting economic-trade cooperation and humanistic exchanges between the two countries, according to a Chinese official.

The construction of a railway line connecting China with Việt Nam is of great importance, according to Chen Gang, member of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Secretary of the CPC Committee of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and chairman of the Regional People's Congress Standing Committee.

He made the statement in an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency correspondents in Beijing.

He pointed out that the two countries currently have two intermodal rail routes for transit, but due to incompatible rail gauge standards, transportation capacity is limited. At present, trade cooperation and goods exchange between the two countries have not fully realised their potential due to limitations in transport capacity.

Chen said that during his recent working visit to Việt Nam, he and high-level Vietnamese leaders and local authorities from border localities had reached a high consensus on accelerating the railway connection.

As Việt Nam is studying the construction of railway lines such as Đồng Đăng-Hà Nội, and Móng Cái-Hạ Long-Hải Phòng, both nations consider the construction of these two railway lines to be of great importance.

The railway line from Fangchenggang to Dongxing in China, which was launched in 2023, is expected to connect with the Móng Cái-Hạ Long-Hải Phòng railway line. Meanwhile, the Nanning-Chongzuo-Pingxiang route is expected to be completed and put into operation by the end of this year, and it will connect with the Đồng Đăng-Hà Nội line.

Both of these lines need to be approved by the governments of both countries, and only after completion that the interconnection will take place, Chen went on, expressing his hope that both countries will accelerate the construction progress of these cross-border railway connections.

Regarding the potential for cooperation between Việt Nam and Guangxi in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), the official expressed his great impression of the important decision made by the Politburo of the Communist Party of Việt Nam to accelerate the development of science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation; and upgrading the development of science, technology, innovation, and digital economy into a national strategy.

Guangxi is ready to enhance cooperation in the AI field with ASEAN countries, including Việt Nam, based on the principle of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, Chen said.

The China-ASEAN Innovation Cooperation Centre, established by Guangxi in Nanning, aims to work with ASEAN countries to promote the development and application of AI and jointly research large language models – including the Vietnamese language – for ASEAN countries, he said. — VNA/VNS