On 11 February 2008, Ms. Guo Suiyan, Research Fellow from the Institute for South Asian Studies, Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences in Kunming, Yunnan Province, and a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for East Asian Studies, made a presentation on 'Regional Cooperation: Yunnan’s Perspective'. In her presentation, she introduced how Yunnan, a frontier province in South West China, actively involves in regional economic cooperation with South East Asia and South Asia.
Being one of the least developed provinces in China, Yunnan shares international border with Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, and adjacent to India and Bangladesh. Economic Integration with ASEAN and the cooperation among Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar (BCIM) are the two “prongs” for Yunnan to play an increasingly prominent role in the regional cooperation.
The Yunnan-ASEAN economic cooperation entered into a new phase with the establishment of China-ASEAN FTA, that comprehensive cooperation covering not only trade but also infrastructure, education, technology and border management has been enhanced. BCIM cooperation is the platform for Yunnan’s engagement on regional cooperation with South Asia, which has seen rapid progress in the resent years signified by the fast growing trade, better transport connectivity, more people-to-people interaction and, a long expected car rally which is designed to cover China (Yunnan), Myanmar, Bangladesh and India. Benefiting from China’s new strategy for more engagement with neighbouring countries, Yunnan has evolved from a far corner of the country to the forefront as a window opening to the world. |
