Fast track border scheme for China, Mongolia

China and Mongolia have implemented a “fast track” entry agreement amid the lingering COVID-19 pandemic to ensure the orderly and safe flow of people and goods across borders at border cities since Friday, China’s Foreign Ministry said Monday.

The green passage scheme will address the need for truck drivers driving freight across the national border and other key personnel needing to cross the border for business, logistics and production needs, according to the Foreign Ministry.

The ministry said the scheme will have a significant role in boosting the bilateral trade of goods and facilitate work and production resumption on key projects involving people from both countries.

China first piloted a fast-track entry mechanism with South Korea in April to keep the pandemic contained while kick-starting economic work and industrial production that inevitably involves personnel exchanges with its major trade partners.

Fast track agreements with other countries, such as Germany and Singapore, followed, according to media reports.

However, most of these links were via international flights whereas land entry is of special significance for countries such as Mongolia.

Trade volume between Mongolia and China reached $8.9 billion in 2019, accounting for 64.4 percent of Mongolia’s total foreign trade, public data showed in January.

The two countries have set a $10-billion target for bilateral trade in 2020.