People’s Daily Online Kunming November 19 (Reporter Mu Shengyu) On November 18, the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province held a special press conference on building a new highland for opening up as part of its “High-Quality Completion of the ’14th Five-Year Plan’” series. The conference systematically introduced the achievements made in building a new highland for opening up since the start of the “14th Five-Year Plan” period.
During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, leveraging the advantages of its national-level ports covering “water, land, air, and rail,” Xishuangbanna Prefecture has been guided by the construction of a radiation center, continuously deepening policy coordination, infrastructure connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration, and closer people-to-people ties with neighboring countries. It has successfully achieved a new leap from being a “remote frontier” to an “open forefront.”
In recent years, Xishuangbanna Prefecture has actively integrated into the construction of the China-Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor, continuously enhanced the level of regional cooperation, and promoted practical cooperation in multiple fields to deepen and solidify. Simultaneously, it has achieved new breakthroughs in cooperation mechanisms, successfully resuming the China-Laos-Myanmar-Thailand Border Area Seminar and expanding the cooperation framework from “Four Countries, Ten Parties” to “Five Countries, Eleven Parties.” Xishuangbanna Prefecture has established a regular meeting mechanism with northern provinces of Laos, achieving tangible cooperation results in areas such as economy and trade, culture, and health.
Xishuangbanna Prefecture has launched an international train service to Luang Prabang, significantly enhancing cross-border transport efficiency. As of October this year, the Xishuangbanna section of the China-Laos Railway had cumulatively transported over 17.61 million passengers and handled more than 16.056 million tons of import and export goods. The fourth-phase renovation and expansion project of Gasa Airport is steadily progressing, with new and resumed international routes to Vientiane, Ho Chi Minh City, Chiang Mai, among others. The highway network continues to improve, with multiple expressways accelerating construction. Among them, the Mengyuan-Guanlei Port Expressway opened to traffic in July this year, achieving a three-dimensional connection between the expressway network and the water port.
The Xishuangbanna ASEAN International Comprehensive Transportation Service Center has been officially opened, resuming 4 China-Laos international passenger bus routes and adding the first public transport-style international passenger route from China’s Mohan Railway Station to Laos’s Boten. The China Jinghong – Laos Ban Xiangguo international passenger bus route is expected to begin operations in December. The Guanlei Port passed national inspection and acceptance. The construction of the Class IV waterway from the Lancang River Boundary Marker 244 to Lincang Port has been completed, successfully realizing the first cross-border “Single Document for Water-Rail-Road” multimodal transport for a 500-ton bulk carrier. The China-Laos 500 kV interconnection project (domestic section) is accelerating, and the construction of a clean energy base interconnected with northern Laos is actively advancing, continuously strengthening the foundation for open development.
Currently, the number of national-level opening-up ports in Xishuangbanna Prefecture has increased to seven. It has built 11 designated supervision sites across 6 categories and 5 border resident mutual trade markets. The Daluo Port has been newly designated as a port for importing Thai fruits. The scale of foreign trade continues to expand, with the total import and export value through the prefecture’s ports in 2024 increasing by nearly 195% compared to the end of the “13th Five-Year Plan” period. The agglomeration effect of industrial parks continues to improve, with the addition of two provincial-level development zones: the Mengla Industrial Park and the Xishuangbanna Border Economic Cooperation Zone. The prefecture has deepened industrial collaboration between eastern and western China, strengthened cooperative development with the Shanghai Songjiang Economic and Technological Development Zone, and further smoothed trade channels through共建园区 (co-building parks) and共享市场 (sharing markets).
Xishuangbanna has built a multi-level cross-border RMB settlement system. China-Laos cross-border QR code payment was first implemented in the prefecture, opening up a new channel for cross-border mobile payment. During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, the prefecture’s cross-border RMB settlement volume more than doubled compared to the “13th Five-Year Plan” period; cross-border RMB electronic settlement for border resident mutual trade achieved full coverage, with cumulative settlement amount reaching 7.49 billion yuan.
Xishuangbanna continues to deepen cooperation with neighboring countries in education, healthcare, culture, tourism, and other fields. Relying on branded events such as the Water-Splashing Festival and the Lancang-Mekong River Cultural and Art Festival, it constantly strengthens friendly city exchanges. During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, it added 1 pair of international sister cities and 4 friendly villages. A number of “small yet beautiful” livelihood projects have been implemented, using Chinese technology and solutions to tangibly enhance the sense of gain and happiness among people in neighboring countries.
In the next step, Xishuangbanna Prefecture will base itself on its border location endowments, continuously leverage its comprehensive advantages, promote policy implementation and platform upgrading, deepen the integration of internal and external resources, continuously enhance its opening-up capacity, fully build a new highland for border opening-up, and inject new momentum and expand new space for the high-quality economic and social development of the entire prefecture.
