Eric's Insight: Yunnan, pioneer and driver for LMC mechanism
The Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Week 2022 was launched in Kunming, Yunnan province earlier this month, manifesting Yunnan’s role again in carrying forward this sub-regional mechanism that has grown to be a model for win-win cooperation.
The Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Week 2022 is launched in Kunming, Yunnan province on April 7. (Photo courtesy/Yunnan Foreign Affairs Office)
Since its inauguration in 2016, the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) has been in sound operation for six full years, bearing results in political confidence, economic cooperation, facility connectivity and people-to-people exchanges. And Yunnan has been active in these aspects.
Pioneer of cooperation
“As a pilot province in China's participation in the LMC, Yunnan has been a builder in the LMC mechanism, a practitioner of the LMC spirit, a communicator of the LMC culture and a contributor to regional dynamism.” Yunnan vice-governor Ren Junhao said at the launch meeting.
The first LMC foreign ministers' meeting was held in south Yunnan’s Jinghong city in November 2015, paving the way for the first LMC leaders’ meeting in south China's Hainan province in the following year.
It was at the leaders’ meeting that the LMC was officially inaugurated. With the 3rd LMC foreign ministers' meeting held in west Yunnan’s Dali in December 2017, political confidence was further increased in the river basin.
Over the years, the LMC commodities exposition was held twice at Kunming Dianchi International Convention and Exhibition Center, with a high-end business forum named after the Dianchi lake taking place concurrently.
Such events boosted economic cooperation in the Lancang-Mekong countries of Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. In 2021, trade between Yunnan and the five Mekong countries has grown despite the on-going Covid outbreaks, with the annual volume reaching 15.8 billion USD.
To ensure shipping security, the China-Laos-Myanmar-Thailand joint patrol on Mekong has been going on for more than a decade, boosting non-traditional security cooperation in the four countries. With vessels always departing from south Yunnan’s Xishuangbanna, the patrol has been conducted 115 times in the international waterway.
Staffers at the Lancang-Mekong law enforcement center visit their peers in south China's Guangdong province in 2020. (Photo/Center website)
The Lancang-Mekong Integrated Law Enforcement and Security Cooperation Center based in central Yunnan’s Kunming has held legal forums, training sessions and exchange activities, in a bid to improve international coordination in crackdown on drug trafficking, telephone fraud and other crimes.
Meanwhile, the Lancang-Mekong Vocational Institute was set up in Yunnan’s far west border town of Ruili, allowing more international students in the region to learn from each other. Over the years, Yunnan province and the Mekong countries have seen droves of students studying at each other’s universities.
Media exchanges were carried out between Yunnan Daily and the Mekong media outlets, when Mekong journalists and media officials were invited to Kunming, Lincang and Dehong, as well as east China’s Zhejiang province.
Among other things, Myanmar media professionals visited Beijing several times via Yunnan journalists association. In return, Yunnan reporters also had annual visits to the Mekong countries, telling the LMC stories of cooperation and friendship.
In 2021, Yunnan set up 12 educational institutions in five Mekong countries, and 4,340 Mekong students enrolled in universities across the province, 421 of whom won scholarships from the provincial government.
For a shared future
In the days to come, Yunnan will make use of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership(RCEP) and the China-Laos Railway for more economic and investment cooperation with the Mekong countries, while upgrading facility connection and increasing cross-border agriculture, tourism, e-commerce and more, said Ren Junhao, the vice governor.
Located in the juction between west China and the Mekong countries, Yunnan has long been a key link in the region, with its cross-border hills, rivers and ethnic groups serving as natural bondages. And based on its experiences in piloting the LMC in the past six years, the province could consider playing a more centric role in the sub-regional cooperative mechanism, especially in connectivity and Covid fight.
Vehicles loaded with 746,800 doses of Chinese COVID-19 vaccine depart from Kunming on January 11, heading for Myanmar. (Photo/Yunnan Daily)
Yunnan doctors had had annual visits to the Mekong countries, offering free surgeries to those who suffered from cataract and congenital heart diseases (CHD). Following the Covid outbreaks, the province has sent medical teams to the Mekong countries in succession, and their efforts were recognized by locals.
In the past year, Yunnan localities also donated 10 batches of medical supplies to 12 Vietnamese provinces or cities hit hard by the Covid outbreaks. As of January 2022, Yunnan has provided Laos with about 7 million doses of vaccines, said a Yunnan Daily report.
But it’s not enough. In the long run, Yunnan should join hands with other southwestern Chinese provinces, such as Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou or Guangxi, in carrying out medical aid to the Mekong friends.
Since West China Hospital of Sichuan University enjoys big fame among Chinese folks, why not let people in the Mekong river basin also served by the Sichuan doctors. Sichuan has recently unveiled a high-profile international communication center, signaling the outreaching tendency of the economic and technological powerhouse in southwest China.
So long as the Covid is brought under rough control, Yunnan needs to further coordinate with the above-mentioned provinces for more effective cooperation in post-Covid economic recovery, making full use of the newly inaugurated China-Laos railway and the RECP.
As of March 11, Kunming Customs has checked 390 international freight trains on China-Laos Railway, with a total freight value of 2.67 billion yuan. Some of the cargo trains came from Chongqing, Guangdong and other Chinese provinces, while goods of Thailand, Laos and other Mekong countries also found an easy way into the Chinese market via Yunnan.
The Chongqing-Kunming high speed rail will be finished and opened to traffic in the years to come. By then, Yunnan will see more fast trains from Chongqing, Chengdu or Xi’an, allowing more Mekong friends to enjoy cheaper but better consumer goods from China.
Via the China-Laos railway section in Yunnan, a Chongqing-Vientiane freight train is launched in the Chinese municipality's Jiangjin district on March 2. (Xinhua photo)
For almost a decade (1937-1946), Chongqing served as the auxiliary capital of China, and it has grown to be the leading manufacturing hub in southwest China; Chengdu used to be the starting point of the ancient southern silk road, connecting the Indo-China peninsular via Yunnan long ago.
Via the China-Laos railway, the Mekong goods now can reach the twin mega cities of Chongqing and Chengdu, from where they can be sold to central Asia and even Europe through the regular China-Europe freight trains.
The LMC has helped bolster the economies and social development of the sub-regional countries and enhance the well-being of their people, said Kem Gunawadh, secretary of state at the Cambodian Ministry of Information.
Yunnan needs to have its highways, waterways and air routes better linked to the China-Laos Railway, speed up customs services and set up smart logistic storage along the railway, said Zou Chunmeng, a researcher at the Institute of International Relations, Yunnan University.
In turning itself into a logistic and connectivity hub of the LMC, the province should focus on its seamless railway connection with Vietnam and Thailand via Laos, while seizing more opportunities from the RCEP trade facilitation, the China-Myanmar economic corridor, the China-Laos community with a shared future, and the China-Cambodia community with a shared future.
(The writer Eric Wang Shixue is an English editor with the Mekong Magazine based in Kunming, Yunnan province. The view in the article does not necessarily represent that of Yunnan Gateway.)