At the doorsteps to Laos and Myanmar, Yunnan is seen by China as the future hub for transport, tourism and trade to keep an eye on ASEAN future united market.
Xinhua News Agency
KUNMING, YUNNAN- Sun Yunhua, a Yunnan-born businessman who runs a furniture business in Laos for many years, has now decided to enter the floral and tourism industries back in Yunnan, as he senses a business boom taking off in his home province in southwest China. “China has launched a strategy to build Yunnan into a gateway for South and Southeast Asia, which will bring more favorable and open policies to the province,” Sun says.
Despite the economic slowdown China is currently experiencing, Chinese and foreign entrepreneurs are eyeing new opportunities as the country has pledged to expand the opening-up of its southwestern border regions.
Although it is an area long marked by poverty, southwest China is nevertheless believed to have huge yet untapped potential. It is also geologically close to South Asia and Southeast Asia — regions China is looking to boost trade with in order to buffer the effects of waning Western demand.
Massive infrastructure projects are currently in full swing to complete the transport and logistic networks in Yunnan, which positions itself as the “bridgehead” on the opening up of southwest China.
Construction has begun on 12 railroads connecting Yunnan with other parts of China as well as Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, and these projects are “making progress,” said Li Jiming, vice head of the Commercial Department of Yunnan.
However, in mountainous southwest China, where natural and human resources are abundant, poor infrastructure and a lack of modernization have long curbed efforts to buoy the local economy, says About 100 years after the first railway was built in Yunnan to link it with Vietnam, the province has rail lines in only 7 of its 16 cities and prefectures, ranking it the second-least-developed Chinese province in terms of railway connectivity, says Wu Conghu, a researcher with the Yunnan government.
At the recently hosted Kunming Fair, officials and entrepreneurs from other Asian countries are also showing support for the opening up of China’s southwest, through which their goods can more easily enter the Chinese market. Myanmar Ambassador to China U Tin Oo said at a Thursday conference that infrastructure projects in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS), including the Kunming-Singapore railway, would “definitely enhance cooperation among GMS countries.”
“I believe that connecting Yunnan with GMS countries by strengthening and facilitating trade and investment connections will generate endless opportunities among GMS countries,” says Admiral Thomrat Hatayodom, vice chairman of GMS Business Council.
Last year, China’s bilateral trade with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) topped 362.9 billion U.S. dollars, marking a 23.9-percent rise year on year, while its trade with South Asia also increased by 20 percent year on year in 2011.
The bustling trade and complicated political situations in Asian regions have prompted China to strengthen economic ties with these countries by developing the country’s southwest. In 2010, China launched the Bridgehead Strategy to build Yunnan, which borders Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, into a social and economic corridor toward South Asia and Southeast Asia.
But unlike eastern China, where the economy relies on investment and demand from the Western world, experts say China’s southwest must “go out” and lift its neighbors to affluence before its own economy can take off. To this end, China must encourage its companies to invest in these Asian countries, increase imports from them and take the lead in building shared infrastructure, such as cross-border railways, experts say.
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
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