Report: China's Participation in Greater Mekong Subregion Cooperation

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III. New Progresses in Chinese Participation in GMS Cooperation

Since the third GMS summit in 2008, the Chinese government has continued to provide financial support to GMS cooperation as its capability permits. It has taken an active part in GMS cooperation in transportation, electricity, telecommunications, environmental protection, agriculture, human resources development, health, tourism, trade facilitation and investment and drug control and achieved fruitful results.

1. Transportation

The western line (the Kunming-Laos-Bangkok Road) of the North-South Economic Corridor was officially put in operation in 2008. The construction of the Chiang Khong-Houayxay Mekong Bridge on the road connecting Laos and Thailand, the third bridge spanning over the Mekong River, will be built with the cost equally shared by the Chinese and Thai governments. The construction started in February 2010, and is expected to be completed for operation in September 2012. Of the central line of the North-South Economic Corridor (Kunming-Hanoi-Haiphong), the 407-kilometer-long section within the Chinese borders has been upgraded into an expressway, and the Vietnamese section is currently being renovated. The border bridge across the Red River, jointly financed by the governments of China and Vietnam, was completed on 1 September 2009. The eastern line of the North-South Economic Corridor (Kunming-Nanning-Hanoi) is 1,208 kilometers in length. The Chinese section of the road has basically been upgraded into an expressway. The Vietnamese section, currently of Grade II, has been scheduled to be renovated into an expressway, and the preparatory work is already underway. The Northern Corridor (Kunming-Dali-Ruili-Myanmar) is about 820 kilometers. Since September 2010, China and Myanmar have organized a joint working team for this project and started drawing a master plan.

Through close cooperation with the other GMS countries, China acceded to The Agreement on Cross-Border Transportation of People and Goods in the GMS (CBTA for short), and completed the negotiation for and the signing of all the 17 annexes and 3 protocols of the CBTA. China and Vietnam have signed the Memorandum of Understanding Between China and Vietnam on Implementing CBTA at the Hekou-Lao Cai Border and the Memorandum of Understanding Between China and Vietnam on Including the Friendship Pass/ Huu Nghi (Vietnam) Entry-Exit Stations and the Kunming-Baise-Nanning-Friendship Pass/Huu Nghi-Lang Son-Hanoi Passage in CBTA Protocols. China and Laos have signed the Memorandum of Understanding Between China and Laos on Implementing CBTA at Mohan/Boten, and opened 13 international transportation routes between the two countries. China has reached consensus with Laos and Thailand on their transportation rights and interests on the Kunming-Bangkok road. At present, the three countries are going through their domestic legal procedures in order to realize transportation facilitation of the Kunming-Bangkok road at an early date. As for the transportation agreement between China and Myanmar, the two sides decided to hold further talks this year in China in an effort to reach consensus and sign the agreement at an early date, so as to provide institutional guarantee and convenience to the trans-border transportation between the two countries.

China has taken an active part in the cooperation on the Pan-Asia Railway. The sections of the proposed eastern, central and western lines of the Pan-Asia Railway inside China have all been incorporated into the Mid- and Long-term Plan for Railway Networks of China, and their construction is well underway. On the eastern line, the construction of the Yuxi-Mengzi Railway started in 2005 and is expected to be completed in 2012, and that of the Mengzi-Hekou Railway started in 2009, and is scheduled to be finished in 2013. On the central line, the capacity expansion project of the Kunming-Yuxi Railway kicked off in 2010, and is estimated to be completed in 2014. Feasibility study on the Yuxi-Mohan Railway is currently underway. On the western line, the capacity expansion project of the Kunming-Guangtong Railway was launched in 2007, and is scheduled to be completed in 2013. Pre-construction preparation for the expansion of the Guangtong-Dali Railway is in full swing, and the construction of the Dali-Ruili Railway started in 2008. While energetically building the various sections of the Pan-Asia Railway within its borders, China has committed itself to supporting the construction of the eastern, central and western lines of the railway in other countries. China has all along taken an active part in GMS conferences on railway cooperation to explore the plan for the Pan-Asia Railway, and urge GMS countries to speed up the construction of the missing sections of the railway so as to realize railway connectivity among GMS countries at an early date. Responding to the wishes of the other GMS countries, China has provided various forms of assistance to the construction of the railway in other countries. At its own expense, China completed the feasibility study on the missing section between Bat Deung and Snuol in Cambodia in 2010 and on the missing section between Vientiane and Mohan in Laos and the missing section between Muse and Lashio in Myanmar in 2011.

2. Power

China had been dedicated to its cooperation with the other GMS countries in the field of electric power. Firstly, China has actively engaged in the various undertakings of the GMS Power Trade Coordination Committee to promote power cooperation among GMS countries. The first edition of the GMS General Plan for Power Development, which China has been advocating, was drawn up in 2008, and then revised in 2010. In accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding on the Road Map for Implementing the Greater Mekong Subregional Cross-border Power Trading signed by the governments of the six countries at the third GMS summit, China actively coordinated with the ADB in conducting the research on "Promotion of the Greater Mekong Subregional Power Trading and the Environmental Sustainable Development of GMS Power Infrastructure". China also provided active coordination to the ADB in making preparations for the Regional Coordination Center (RCC) for GMS Power Trading. Secondly, China has actively pursued power grid connectivity and power trading with neighboring countries and regions. In September 2004, via a 110kv power line from Hekou, Yunnan Province to Lao Cai in Vietnam, China officially began to export electricity to Vietnam. Today, China Southern Power Grid is transmitting electricity to the eight provinces in northern Vietnam via three 220kv power lines and four 110kv power lines. The grid delivered 5.53 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2010, up 24.9 percent over the previous year. By the end of August 2011, China had accumulatively supplied 20.9 billion kilowatt-hours of power to Vietnam. To solve the increasingly serious power shortage in northern Laos, China and Laos launched a cooperation project, under which China Southern Power Grid shall supply power to Laos through 115kv power lines. The project was put into operation in December 2009, and China Southern Power Grid has thence been supplying power to the four provinces in northern Laos. By the end of August 2011, China had accumulatively supplied 136 million kilowatt-hours of electricity to the north of Laos. In October 2008, the six 100MW generation units of Shweli River Hydropower Station, currently the largest BOT hydropower project in Myanmar, were officially connected to China Southern Power Grid and began to supply power to China. In 2010, China Southern Power Grid bought a total of 1.72 billion kilowatt-hours of power from the Shweli River and the Dapein hydropower stations in Myanmar. By the end of August 2011, China had imported a total of 4.868 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity from Myanmar. In GMS power trade, China is no longer a pure electricity exporter. It has gradually become both a power exporter and a power importer. Through active promotion of optimal allocation of GMS power resources, it has effectively eased power shortage in some GMS countries and served the development of the power industry as well as economic and social progress in these countries. Thirdly, China has actively engaged in GMS cooperation in the development of power projects. As to grid projects, in June 2010, China Southern Power Grid and the Ministry of Planning and Investment of Laos signed the Memorandum of Understanding on China Southern Power Grid Company Limited' s Investing in the National Power Grid of Laos. Now, the Chinese side has completed the compilation of the needed research reports for the project, including the feasibility study report, the concession pattern research report, and the project development agreement, and has officially submitted these documents to the relevant departments of the Laotian government. Upon approval of the Laotian government, China will start the development and construction of the project as soon as possible. In terms of the development of power source, a number of Chinese power companies, including China Power Investment Corporation, China Huaneng Group, China Datang Corporation, China Huadian Corporation, China Guodian Corporation, and Chongqing Three Gorges Water Conservancy and Electric Power Company, have developed

some power generation projects in the other GMS countries, including the Mong Ton Project and the staged hydropower stations on the upper Irrawaddy River in Myanmar.