Report: China's Participation in Greater Mekong Subregion Cooperation

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IV. Participation of China's Yunnan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in GMS Cooperation

Yunnan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (Guangxi for short), located in the southwest frontier of China and bordering on Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, are important gateways to Southeast Asia and South Asia, and are at the front line of China' s participation in GMS cooperation. They cover an area of 637,070 square kilometers and have a combined population of 97.55 million. In 2010, Yunnan and Guangxi together realized a GDP of 1.67225 trillion RMB yuan, of which Yunnan accounted for 722.01 billion RMB yuan, up by 26.8% over 2008, and Guangxi 950.24 billion RMB yuan, up by 35.3% over 2008. In the same year, the two provinces registered a total export and import volume of 31.08 US billion dollars, up by 36.1% over 2008, of which 8.83 billion dollars were with the other GMS countries, up by 60% over 2008.

Yunnan Province has 15 ethnic minority groups who live across the border between Yunnan and the neighboring countries, and Guangxi is the autonomous region with the largest ethnic minority population in China. The two provinces enjoy ethnic harmony, amicable ties with the neighboring countries and close trade, economic and cultural ties with the other GMS countries. The other GMS countries are the key markets for Yunnan enterprises to explore and take part in international cooperation in sectors where they have competitive advantages, including hydropower, minerals, agriculture and tourism. They are also important partners for Guangxi in a series of key cooperation projects in such sectors as transportation, energy, tourism, and agriculture. The cooperation and exchanges between the two provinces and the other GMS countries in the fields of environmental protection, health, human resources development, and culture and arts have been dynamic. With a view of realizing common prosperity and affluence with its neighbors, China has always placed emphasis on the development and opening-up of its frontier regions. The 12th Five-Year Plan states clearly that Guangxi will be turned into a higher platform for China' s cooperation with ASEAN, Yunnan will serve as a gateway for China' s effort to open up toward the southwestern , and central Yunnan and the Beibu Bay Region of Guangxi have been listed as economic regions for priority development. These major policy measures will inject fresh vigor and vitality into the Greater Mekong Subregion, the two provinces included, and at the same time help deepen the two provinces' participation in GMS cooperation.

Thanks to the support and guidance of China' s central government, the cooperative relations between the two provinces and the related regions of the other GMS countries have been deepened since the third GMS summit. The cooperation mechanisms, including "the Yunnan-Northern Laos Working Team" , "the Yunnan-Northern Thai Working Team" , "the Economic Consultative Conference between Yunnan and the Four Provinces and Cities of Vietnam" , "the Joint Working Team of Yunnan and the Four Border Provinces of Vietnam" , and "the Joint Working Committee of Guangxi and the Four Border Provinces of Vietnam" , have functioned well, and cooperation in all fields has made steady progress.

Remarkable Achievement in Infrastructure Cooperation. As for roads, the two provinces have actively promoted the construction of the road network connecting GMS countries. The sections within Yunnan of the China-Laos-Thailand Road running from Kunming via Mohan and Vientiane to Bangkok, the China-Myanmar Road running from Kunming via Ruili to Rangoon, the China-Vietnam Road running from Kunming via Hekou to Hanoi, and the China-Myanmar-India Road running from Kunming via Tengchong and Myitkyina in Myanmar to Ledo in India, have all been renovated into higher-grade roads. By the end of 2010, all the roads in Guangxi leading to the Class I ports on the China-Vietnam border had been renovated into higher-grade roads. As for railways, the two provinces have been energetically pushing forward the projects of the construction of the Yuxi-Mengzi-Hekou Railway and the Dali-Ruili Railway and the expansion of the Kunming-Yuxi Railway and the Kunming-GuangTong Railway. As for shipping, the five-tier shipping lane system of the Lancang River has been built for transnational navigation along the Lancang/Mekong River, and the navigable period has been extended from previously half a year to basically the whole year. As for civil aviation, since 2008, Guangxi has opened air routes from Nanning to Ho Chi Minh City, Vientiane, Rangoon, Phnom Penh, and Bangkok, realizing full connectivity between the Nanning Airport and GMS countries. The New Kunming International Airport of Yunnan, to be put in use at the end of 2011, has a designed capacity of transporting 65 million person-times and 2.3 million tons of cargo a year. With this airport, the fourth national-level gateway airport after the airports of Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai, the capacity to reach the other GMS countries by air transportation has been enhanced. As for telecommunications, the Yunnan and Guangxi branches of the China Telecom have engaged in active cooperation with Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam in the deployment of international optical fiber cables, international voice services, Internet services, and cross-border call transfer services. Their services have covered all GMS countries.

Remarkable Progress in Industrial Cooperation. As for the cooperation on agriculture technology, on the basis of the two on-going projects of China-Vietnam demonstration parks for agricultural science and technology, Yunnan established similar parks in Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar in 2010 to apply research findings concerning rice, dry rice, soybean and potato. All the projects have shown notable effect of yield increase. Guangxi conducted a series of agricultural cooperation projects with Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar, and achieved sound results in sugar cane planting and processing, sisal hemp planting, new varieties of vegetables and fruits, and trial planting of hybrid maize. Meanwhile, following the instructions of the Ministry of Agriculture, Guangxi has carried out projects to demonstrate and promote the biogas technology for rural households in Cambodia. As for tourism cooperation, Yunnan has signed with Vietnam, Laos and other neighboring countries 14 agreements or memorandums of understanding on tourism cooperation, and compiled the Plan of Transnational Tourist Lines in the Golden Square Tourism Region and the Plan of Transnational Tourist Lines in the Shangri-la-Tengchong-Myitkyina Tourism Region. The province has worked with these countries to open several tourist routes, launch border tours, hold tourism festivals, invest in tourism projects, and train tourism managers. These cooperation endeavors have greatly boosted border tourism and cross-border tourism. Guangxi and three provinces of Vietnam, namely, Hanoi, Guangning and Lang Son, have signed the Memorandum of Understanding on the Cooperative Administration of the China-Vietnam Border Tourism, and joined hands in developing the market for tourism between northern Vietnam and southern Guangxi. In March 2011, Guangxi officially implemented the regulation by which the processing of the application by Vietnam-bound tourist groups for Chinese citizens' border passes shall be started instantly upon filing, and completed on the same day of the application.

Steady Progress in Educational Cooperation. The universities and colleges in Yunnan have established long-term stable partnerships with the neighboring countries, and continued to expand the enrolment of foreign students. By 2010, the number of the students from the other GMS countries studying in Yunnan had reached about 8,000. In cooperation with their counterparts in Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, the institutions of higher learning in Yunnan and Guangxi have set up a number of Confucius institutes to step up training of Chinese-speaking talents for these neighboring countries. Since 2008, Guangxi has been sending over 100 volunteers to Thailand each year to teach Chinese. The Guangxi University for Nationalities and the Guangxi Normal University have organized a number of training courses for teachers and trained over 100 Chinese language teachers from the other GMS countries.