Yunnan takes actions to be pivot of opening up
Since President Xi Jinping’s inspection tour to Yunnan in 2015, the province has taken effective actions in a bid to build itself into China’s pivot of opening-up facing south and southeast Asia.
Over the years, Yunnan province has established cooperative mechanisms with all the five Mekong countries, forged 101 sister-city partnerships with 36 countries around the world. 46 of the partnerships were signed between China’s Yunnan and the south and southeast Asian countries.
Connectivity makes strides. The Dali-Lincang railway opened to traffic, taking Yunnan closer to Myanmar, and the China-Laos railway will be in operation by the end of 2021. Yunnan opened 55 air routes to 33 south and southeast Asian destinations as of 2020, and 13 cross-border power transmission lines were set up between Yunnan and the three bordering countries Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar.
From 2015 to 2020, the provincial foreign trade surged to 38.94 billion US dollars from 24.52 billion US dollars, an increase of 9.69 % year on year. The China (Yunnan) pilot free trade zone welcomed in around 18,000 new companies last year.
The cumulative cross-border renminbi settlement in Yunnan province has reached nearly 608 billion yuan (about 93.8 billion U.S. dollars) as of March, according to a local branch of the country's central bank. Yunnan has established cross-border renminbi business with 106 countries and regions, including 40 along the Belt and Road.
Yunnan doctors on the brightness journey carried out free surgeries to over 5,000 cataract patients in neighboring countries. During the Covid-19 affliction, the province denoted medical supplies to over 20 countries.
As of December 2020, a total of 888 Yunnan companies invested in 61 counties and regions, and the investments added up to 12.16 billion US dollars. Last year, 62% of Yunnan investments went to the ASEAN nations and the south Asian countries.
Reporting by Han Chengyuan and Liu Ziyu (Yunnan Daily); Online photos; Trans-editing by Wang Shixue