Southwest China Anticipates Free Trade with ASEAN

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, September 07, 2002

Southwest China Anticipates Free Trade with ASEAN

Southwest China's provinces are enthusiastic supporters for building a China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA).

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Southwest China's provinces are enthusiastic supporters for building a China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA).

"Setting up the China ASEAN Free Trade Area offers an historic opportunity for Guangxi," Li Zhaozhuo, regional government chairman of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region said at a meetingin Guangxi. "It will help us make the most of our advantageous position next to southeast Asia and make western China a showcase for China's opening up."

He suggested that the central government build an experimental zone for CAFTA in Guangxi and Yunnan.

Establishing the free trade area was raised in November 2001. Once set up, it will generate annual gross domestic product worth two trillion US dollars and trade worth 1.2 trillion dollars a year, figures indicate.

In talks between China and ASEAN, the two parties agreed to reach a framework document on the CAFTA this year.

Xu Rongkai, governor of Yunnan Province, said: "When the CAFTA is up and running, it will turn this remote area into the front line in China's trade cooperation with southeast Asian countries."

In anticipation, Yunnan is speeding up expressway construction between western Yunnan and Myanmar, southwestern Yunnan and Laos and Thailand, and between southern Yunnan and Vietnam.

China has made a practicable proposal to build a Pan-Asia Railway line, an important part of the CAFTA.

The six provinces and autonomous regions in southwest China hope to build telecommunication lines linking Guangxi and Yunnan with Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Singapore, Myanmar, Thailand and Indonesia.

Southwest China has maintained close economic ties with ASEAN. Trade between Sichuan Province and ASEAN totaled 120 million US dollars in the first half of this year, tripling that of the same period last year.

Guangxi, which shares a 1,020 km border with Vietnam, enjoyed import and export trade worth 400 million dollars last year.

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