The 427-kilometer railway project will run from the Vietnam-China border gate at Lao Cai-Hekou, through the capital of Hanoi and port city of Haiphong, to Ha Long City, the official Vietnam News Agency reported.

Vietnam's parliament on Wednesday approved plans for an $8 billion rail link from its largest northern port city to the border with China, boosting links between the two communist-ruled countries

Vietnam's National Assembly will on Tuesday approve a bold bureaucratic reform plan that will slash up to a fifth of government bodies, as it tries to cut costs and improve administrative efficiency.

It is one of two railway lines to China that Vietnam plans as part of its ‘Two Corridors, One Belt’ initiative.