China
Full Text: Country Report on China´s Participation in Greater Mekong Subregion Cooperation
IV. Participation by China's Yunnan Province and Guangxi in GMS CooperationYunnan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (Guangxi, for short), located in the southwest of China and bordering Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, are the regions of China to participate directly in GMS cooperation. In 2007, the two provinces together had a territory of 630,700 square kilometers, a population of 95.16 million, and a GDP of 140.3 billion dollars. Due to influences of various factors, the economic and social development of the two provinces is generally backward, with a per capita GDP of 1,474 dollars. In 2007, the two provinces had a population of absolute poverty of 2.734 million (Based on the poverty standard of the Chinese government, by which absolute poverty means having an annual per capita income less than 693 RMB yuan, which is lower than the UN standard of 1 dollar of living cost per day), and a population of low income of 6.608 million. To develop the economy and society and raise the people's living standards in the two provinces, it is necessary for them to take an active and practical attitude in participating in GMS cooperation and speed up their opening process.
Yunnan Province has 15 ethnic minorities that live across the border between Yunnan and the neighboring countries, and Guangxi has been a famous hometown of overseas Chinese and is an autonomous region with the Zhuang people as the major ethnicity, so the people in the two provinces have had a long tradition of exchange and communication with the people in other GMS countries. They are the major tropical provinces of China, unique among Chinese provinces but share many features with the other GMS countries in terms of agriculture. As for leading industries, Yunnan concentrates on tobacco, hydraulic power, nonferrous metals, steel, mineral exploitation, chemical, and development of biological resources, while Guangxi emphasizes nonferrous metals, sugar making, power, automotive, integrated development of forestry and pulp and paper making, and steel, iron and manganese. In terms of these industries, these provinces enjoy leadership in Southwest China and even in the whole country and are quite complementary with the other GMS countries. As for tourism, these two provinces are major tourist destinations, and are also the most convenient tourist passages between China and the other GMS members. In conclusion, there are great potentials for the cooperation between the two provinces and other GMS countries.
Thanks to the support and guidance from the central government, since the second GMS summit, the cooperative relations between the two provinces and related GMS countries have continuously deepened and the bilateral cooperation has proceeded steadily in various fields.
Yunnan Province has established a number of mechanisms for bilateral cooperation, including "Yunnan-Northern Thailand Working Team", "The Economic Consultative Conference Between the Five Cities of Yunnan Province and Vietnam", "Yunnan-Northern Laos Working Team", and "Yunnan-Myanmar Cooperation Business Forum". Since it officially participated in GMS cooperation in 2005, Guangxi has established its inter-departmental coordination mechanism for the cooperation and has formulated its strategic framework and action plan for the cooperation.
The construction of infrastructures such as roads, railways, navigation facilities, airports, ports, and power and telecommunications facilities has proceeded smoothly, and the facilities already built have operated effectively. At present, 11international passenger and cargo transportation lines have been established across the border between Yunnan and Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar, and the passenger transportation between Yunnan and Vientiane has also entered operation. Guangxi has obtained the approval to open 22 transportation lines with Vietnam, of which 10are already in operation.
The cooperation projects in the sectors of agricultural development, environmental protection, tourism, health, and human resource development have been comprehensively implemented. Yunnanhas signed agreements with Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia respectively on establishing agricultural technology model parks, and Guangxi has signed agreements with Quang Ninh Province of Vietnam on agricultural cooperation. Yunnan has been active in training various technicians for the neighboring countries, with 70% of its overseas students coming from GMS countries. Utilizing its language advantage, Guangxi has established the Guangxi Base for China-ASEAN Human Resource Development and Cooperation, training all kinds of talents for GMS members.
In addition, the two provinces have vigorously fulfilled the other commitments that the central government has pledged to GMS cooperation. Take cooperation in drug prohibition, with the support and guidance from the central government, Yunnan has continuously strengthened its cooperation with other GMS countries in fields like crackdown on drug trafficking, training of drug-prohibition officers, opium-replacing crop substitution, and information exchange. For the key agendas, that is, green drug-prohibition and opium-replacing crop substitution, the province has tried many development modes and, one of which is to encourage and support the enterprises to undertake crop substitution abroad, and has achieved a preliminary success. Till July 2007, the province had a total of 135 enterprises engaged in overseas crop substitution, 84.9% more than the 73 in 2005.
Sticking to its ideal of realizing common prosperity and affluence with its neighboring countries, China has always attached importance to the development and opening of its frontier regions. Responding to the requirements of the strategy for coordinated regional development, China has enhanced its fiscal transfer payment and investment support to the western region of China that includes Yunnan and Guangxi. In recent years, China has made concentrated efforts to develop and open up some key regions in the country such as the Beibuwan Bay economic zone to enable them to play a leading role in regional development. These measures will definitely inject new life into the GMS, which includes these two provinces; at the same time, the deepening GMS cooperation will bring Yunnan and Guangxi richer and more diverse opportunities for development.