Sawt Falasteen - Vietnam parliament approves $8 billion rail link to China

The new rail line will run through some of Vietnam's key manufacturing hubs, home to Samsung, Foxconn, Pegatron and other global giants, many of whom rely on a regular flow of components from China.

The route will stretch 390 kilometres (around 240 miles) from the port city of Haiphong to the mountainous city of Lao Cai, which borders China's Yunnan province, and will also run through the capital Hanoi.

Construction of the railway was backed in a vote by 95 percent of parliamentarians in the country's rubber-stamp National Assembly, an AFP journalist in the chamber said.

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.

The approval comes just over a year after the neighbours pledged to deepen ties during a visit to Vietnam by President Xi Jinping, as Beijing sought to counter growing US influence with Hanoi.

Vietnam's transport infrastructure is considered relatively weak, with a road network struggling to keep up with demand and an underdeveloped rail system.

The country is an increasingly favoured destination for foreign businesses looking for an alternative to China, but low-quality infrastructure is seen as holding back surging investment.

Dan Martin, international business adviser of Dezan Shira & Associates, said the new rail link could help smooth out bumps in international supply chains caused by the current reliance on slow and costly trucks that are "prone to border bottlenecks".

"China supplies much of the raw material that fuels Vietnam's manufacturing sector, and keeping that pipeline steady is critical," he told AFP.

"A modern rail link cuts through... inefficiencies, ensuring goods move smoothly whether they're flowing into Vietnam's factories or heading to global markets via Haiphong's port," he said.

- 2030 deadline -

Vietnam says a feasibility study for the Haiphong-Lao Cai railway will begin this year and it wants the line finished by 2030, although the country has a history of overruns when it comes to major infrastructure projects.

The line, spanning nine provinces and cities, will follow roughly the route of an existing rail track built during the French colonial period.

Trains can currently run on that rail at just 50 kilometres an hour (30 mph), but Vietnam says the new line will accommodate both passenger and freight cars with speeds of up to 160 km/h.

Pham Thu Hang, spokesperson for the ministry of foreign affairs, said last week that the rail link would "promote economic, trade, investment and tourism cooperation between the two countries as well as in the region".

It comes just three months after Vietnam approved plans for a $67 billion high-speed railway from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, another much-needed boost to infrastructure that is expected to drive growth.

That railway, which will stretch more than 1,500 kilometres from the capital in the north to the country's business hub in the south, will reduce the current journey time by rail from 30 hours to around five.

The other line to China, which has not yet been approved by parliament, will connect Hanoi to Lang Son province, which borders China's Guangxi region, travelling through another area packed with global manufacturing facilities.

During Xi's visit to Hanoi, the two countries signed more than 30 agreements including a pledge to develop rail links.

Vietnam has long pursued a "bamboo diplomacy" approach, striving to stay on good terms with both China and the United States.

It shares US concerns about Beijing's increasing assertiveness in the contested South China Sea, but it also has close economic ties with China.

A.AbuSaada--SF-PST