Briefs

Vietnam will have some 116 warehouses at the border gates with Laos and Cambodia by 2035. 
The Ministry of Industry and Trade said it would develop professional and modern warehouses with enough logistics services to keep import and export goods at these border gates.
The warehousing system will promote sustainable development of import and export activities along the border lines, especially exports at border gates along border lines between Vietnam and the two countries.
By 2025, the warehousing system will meet all demand of the area and have enough capacity to store import and export goods at the border gate regions.
Eighty per cent of the warehouses will be required to provide important and necessary logistics services, such as storage, handling, inspection and implementation of customs procedures for imports and exports. The plan includes the upgrade or building of at least one warehouse at an international border gate region or a major border gate. 
All goods under the warehousing system will be inspected for quality, hygiene, safety and other related standards.
The ministry expects the plan to ensure stability and promote growth of imports and exports step-by-step at border gates along the borders between Vietnam and the two countries.
By 2035, all border gates along those borders will have a completed warehousing system, including 116 existing and newly-built warehouses, to meet all warehousing demand for imports and exports and provide synchronous logistics services for promoting rapid and sustainable development of import and export activities, the ministry said. |– Viet Nam News

Cooperation based on 
bilateral pacts sought 
Indonesian Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto has said Indonesia will try to strengthen cooperation with the United States to boost trade between the two countries.
“For Indonesia, America is one of our strategic markets. Therefore, trade between the two countries should be increased,” Airlangga said in a statement after meeting with US Ambassador Joseph Donovan Jr on Monday.
During the meeting, the minister said he was informed that the US government preferred to cooperate with countries through bilateral agreements.
The US is Indonesia’s third largest trading partner after China and Japan. Trade from January-July last year reached US$13.2 billion, with Indonesian posting a surplus of $5.23 billion.
Airlangga said bilateral agreements between the two countries needed to be expanded because Indonesia wanted to increase textile shipments to the country.
“Currently, the tariff on our textiles is 12.5 per cent, while for Vietnamese textiles it is zero per cent because the two countries have a bilateral agreement,” he said. US investors were expected to invest in several industrial zones such as Dumai in Riau, Berau in East Kalimantan, Gresik in East Java and Kendal in Central Java, he added. – The Jakarta Post