New Route Boosting Trade Between China, ASEAN

Home>>Business

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, April 17, 2003

New Route Boosting Trade Between China, ASEAN

The new route connecting west China and Southeast Asia has given a strong impetus to bilateral trade between the two regions.

DISCUSSION

CHINESE

SEND TO FRIEND

The new route connecting west China and Southeast Asia has given a strong impetus to bilateral trade between the two regions.

Liu Fangmin, reputed as the "King of Shoes" in western China, has enlarged his sales market to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) recently thanks to the opening of the new route.

"The newly-built Neijiang-Kunming Railway and the outlet to the sea in southwestern China have become the shortcut for my shoes tobe transported to Southeast Asia," said Liu.

The 872-kilometer Neijiang-Kunming Rail Line connects west China's Sichuan province to southwestern Yunnan province. It is a key route linking Guizhou and Sichuan provinces, Chongqing municipality and the capital city of Kunming in Yunnan province.

Meanwhile, the newly-built highway to the sea in southwest China is more than 1,700 km long. Beginning in Chengdu, capital ofSichuan province and ending in the coastal city of Beihai in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, the new route has cut the formerly one-week journey to about 20 hours.

The road and railway construction, too, has facilitated transport from west China to the Mekong Delta.

"It costs much less now to ship my products from the city of Neijiang to southeast Asia," said Liu, whose factory sells more than one million pairs of shoes to Vietnam every year. In the past,Liu said, the traditional route to Southeast Asia was through Shanghai, which is much more expensive.

The area along the upper reaches of the Yangtze has 12 big and medium-sized cities, including Chengdu, Chongqing and Mianyang, with a total population of 60 million. It is an area of utmost importance for trade between China and ASEAN.

The volume of bilateral trade between China and ASEAN rose sharply in recent years. But most of the increase goes to the developed areas of the Yangtze and Pearl River deltas and the trade between west China and ASEAN still needs to be further developed.

The export volume of Sichuan province and Chongqing municipality to the ASEAN was respectively 345 million US dollars and 336 million US dollars last year, much less than the export volume of Shanghai to the region in the first half of 2002 alone, which stood at 1.346 billion US dollars.

To set up a free trade area between China and ASEAN would benefit both western China and the Mekong River area, said Li Hong, an expert on Southeast Asia affairs in Guangxi University.

Questions?Comments? Click here

China, ASEAN to Implement Tariff Reduction Program in 2005

Chinese FM Meets Ambassadors from ASEAN Member Countries to China

China-ASEAN Free Trade Deal Set to Boost East Asian Integration

China Has not Provided Weapons to Iraq Since 1990 ( 2 Messages)

SARS May not Originate from China: WHO Official ( 10 Messages)

HK Star Leslie Cheung Commits Suicide ( 41 Messages)

The War to Topple Saddam Is a Burden on the Americans ( 13 Messages)

Who Are the Real Criminals? ( 28 Messages)