Yunnan sees more connectivity and opening-up

Reading tip: As early as 2,000 years ago, the Southern Silk Road via Yunnan was an important pathway for China’s outbound transport, trade and cultural exchanges. In modern times, the famed Yunnan-Viet Nam Railway, Stiwell Road and Hump air route also crossed the territory of Yunnan.

Under the Belt and Road Initiative, Yunnan aims to be China’s pivot of opening-up facing south and southeast Asia, promoting policy coordination, facilities connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration and people-to-people bonds. 

At the backdrop of the on-going Yunnan Lianghui/Two Sessions, we have a special review of the changes happened in the past five years. Our fourth story is about Yunnan’s connectivity and opening-up.

Policy coordination

The Lancang-Mekong River is a signature of Yunnan’s role in policy coordination.

Li Yong saluted and looked serious on December 26, 2017, when the 65th joint patrols on the Mekong River with law enforcers from China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand, kicked off. The ships set sail from Guanlei Port in south Yunnan's Xishuangbanna. 

As deputy commander-in-chief of Yunnan border police corps, Li would solemnly salute the law enforcers every time they departed the port for the mission. Knowing well the perils during the petrol, Li asked them to be careful because criminal gangs and troubled waters exist at some Mekong sections. 

Yunnan border police started the joint patrols in December 2011 to tackle safety concerns after a gang hijacked two cargo ships and killed 13 Chinese sailors in Thai waters on Oct. 5, 2011.

Thanks to effective policy coordination, the Lancang-Mekong police officers cracked down 38 smuggling and drug-trafficking cases, with 740 kilograms of drugs seized in the past years.

Now, the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation has grown to be an important multilateral cooperative mechanism under the Belt and Road Initiative, carrying the mission of "building a community of shared future for Lancang-Mekong countries”.

As China’s leading province in the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation, Yunnan has increased policy communication with the Mekong countries, benefiting all the parties.

Yunnan also plays a key role in the China-Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor, the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor, and other mechanisms.

Facilities connectivity

On the first day of each month, Mo Ximing, a client manager with Yunnan Power Grid Company, goes routinely to north Vietnam’s province of Lao Cai to read the kilo-watt-hour meters and jot down the figures.

Mo began his Vietnam records in 2004, when his company’s Honghe branch finished China's first power transmission project to Vietnam on September 25. 

From then on, reading the meters in Vietnam has been Mo's monthly routine. By May 2017, he has visited the neighbor country 149 times. As of February 2017, a total of 18.623 billion KWH of power was supplied to Vietnam.

The Yunnan company also transmitted extra electricity to north Laos in recent years. 

On January 22, the US$218 million and 86-megawatt Nam Phay hydropower project in the Lao province of Xaysomboun was officially put into production, with Norinco International Corp of China being the project sponsor.

Besides power-grids, other key connectivity facilities with Yunnan include the Kunming Changshui International Airport, the China-Laos Railway under construction, and the Kunming-Bangkok Highway.