Vietnam's Industry Ministry has submitted a plan on developing industry in seven provinces bordering China to boost exports to the neighbor country.

Under the plan, Lao Cai Province will focus on exploiting and processing minerals and farm and forest products for export to China's Yunnan Province, local newspaper Vietnam Economic Times reported Monday.

Lang Son Province is to exploit bauxite, from which alumina, material for aluminum production, is produced, on a medium scale and then export the mineral to China. It will also produce more coal, and double the existing capacity of 111.2 MW of the Na Duong coal-fired power plant after 2010.

Quang Ninh Province, which accounts for 85 percent of total industrial production of the seven localities, will focus on facilitating the processing of farm products and seafood for export to China and production of packages for export items.

According to the plan, Lai Chau Province is to tap its reserves of iron, lead and zinc ores and rare earths, and construct an industrial park in Phong Tho district to attract investment for processing minerals and producing cement and construction materials. Meanwhile, Dien Bien Province will build small and medium hydroelectric plants, and develop farm and forest product processing industries along with concentrated material zones.

Economic and trade relations between China and Vietnam have gained encouraging results in recent years, with China ranking as Vietnam's biggest trading partner. Chinese statistics show that two-way trade reached US$6.74 billion in 2004, an all time high.

At a recent meeting of the China-Vietnam Joint Committee on Economic and Trade Cooperation, the two sides agreed to further their economic and trade cooperation and fulfill the two-way trade target of US$15 billion by 2010.

(Xinhua News Agency December 19, 2005)