Society

Railways to better link SW China with SE Asia

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-05-31 16:48

RUILI, Yunnan - At a tranquil courtyard in a remote village on the border of China and Myanmar, Ming Yong reviews his market research tour in Singapore and Thailand one month ago.

"Once the rail project is finished, the villagers here can visit Singapore directly by train," says Ming, a businessman from the border city of Ruili in China's southwestern Yunnan province.

The railway he mentions is the west line of the transnational railway passing through Yunnan province, which is also a vital component of the pan-Asian railway network.

The China Railway Group Limited (China Railway) announced late last week that it had signed an agreement with Myanmar to jointly build the railway that would extend through the southeast Asian nation.

This section of railway will run from Ruili to Myanmar's western port city of Kyaukphyu, with a length of 810 km.

"With the railway, our products like rice and vegetables can be delivered to neighboring countries more easily," Ming says.

Having invested in a farm product market, a vegetable base and a rice processing plant, Ming is confident about the prospect of his export-oriented business because of the newly-planned railway.

Situated in the southwest of China, Yunnan province borders Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar with a boundary length of 4,000 km. At the beginning of this century, railway length in the province only took up three percent of the country's total.

China is building a transnational railway network that reaches into southeast Asia from Kunming, capital city of Yunnan. Two other lines are under construction in addition to the Ruili-Kyaukphyu railway.

One of the lines passes through the China-Laos border city of Mohan before ending in the Vietnamese capital city of Hanoi. The other runs through the Vietnam-China border county of Hekou before ending in the Vietnamese city of Vientiane.

The three railway lines will eventually meet in Thailand's capital of Bangkok.

Quan Hongtao, a local official in Ruili, says the transportation network will be key to China's opening to neighboring southwestern countries, largely because of the low cost of cross-regional railway trade.

"Since railway has the advantage of transporting goods and consuming less energy, the construction of the railway network will bring more opportunity to the local economy," Quan says.

Over the past five years, Yunnan has launched more than 10 inter-provincial railway projects, with an investment of 16.2 billion yuan (about $2.5 billion) last year, according to the provincial railway department.

More than 1,600 km of railway lines are under construction in Yunnan, including the lines that connect the province to China's southwestern Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality and eastern Shanghai Municipality.

Liu Zhi, deputy director of the Institute of Southeast Asia Studies, said at a press conference in mid-May in Yunnan that the railway network will closely connect Yunnan with neighboring regions.

"Yunnan will become an export processing zone geared to the needs of southeast Asia," said Liu.

According to Liu, the total trade volume between China and Greater Mekong Subregion countries is expected to surpass $150 billion in 2015, when China is predicted become the second or first largest trade partner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).