Yunnan Opens Interprovincial and Cross-Border Corridors to Promote Coordinated Regional Development

　　Recently, the Yunnan Provincial People's Government issued the Yunnan Provincial Plan for Regional Coordinated Development During the 15th Five-Year Plan Period (hereinafter referred to as the Plan), explicitly proposing to build a comprehensive multidimensional transportation network integrating high-speed rail + expressways + water transport + aviation. By 2030, Yunnan's regional coordinated development mechanism will be more robust, and the regional coordinated and interconnected development pattern featuring "Kunming taking the lead, Central Yunnan guiding, regional coordination, corridor-belt linkage, and all-region opening-up" will basically take shape.

　　According to the Plan, Yunnan will actively serve and integrate into the construction of the China-Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor and the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor and the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, open up interprovincial and cross-border corridors, and build in a high-quality manner the economic belt along the China-Laos Railway, the Chongqing-Kunming High-Speed Railway Economic Belt, and the border economic belt.

　　To promote quality improvement and capacity expansion of the China-Laos Railway "golden corridor", the Plan specifies that Yunnan will implement the capacity improvement project for the China-Laos Railway (Yuxi-Mohan section), take the China-Laos Railway as the main axis, and accelerate the construction of a surrounding rail-road-water-air multimodal transport network; accelerate the development of Kunming as an assembly center for China-Europe (Central Asia) freight trains and Yuxi as a node city; support the regular operation of the "Kunming Land Port" and "Lancang-Mekong · Yunnan" sea-road-rail international multimodal transport trains; and promote efficient connection between the China-Laos Railway and the Chongqing-Kunming, Shanghai-Kunming, Yunnan-Guangxi and other railways, so as to build major corridors connecting the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle, the Yangtze River Delta region, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area with Indochina Peninsula countries via Yunnan.

　　In developing the border economic belt, Yunnan will improve the transportation and logistics system in border areas, build parallel border highway routes and border port connector roads; strengthen the connection between the border road network and railways and ports toward Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar, and develop multimodal transport; open up internal and external access channels at ports, focusing on counties where national Class I ports are located, and cultivate regional logistics distribution centers.