Tertiary Industry Contributes More to Yunnan's Economy

It is learned from relevant department of the Yunnan provincial government that the tertiary industry, which takes tourism as the pillar, registered an added value of 50 billion yuan or a 10 percent increase last year, surpassing the secondary industry for the first time in terms of contribution to the provincial economy.

Taking tourism as one of the major projects, governments at all levels have invested more than 83 billion yuan to accelerate the infrastructure construction and fundamentally improved the conditions of highway, railway, aviation, communication, electricity and city construction.

At present, high-grade trunk lines of highways can reach all the main scenic spots in the center part of Yunnan; tourist trains are available from Kunming, capital of Yunnan, to Shilin, Yuxi, Dali, Luoping and other major tour areas; there are nine reconstructed or newly built civil airports. So far, the civil aviation of Yunnan has opened 96 national and international airlines connecting it with over 10 countries such as Japan, Singapore, Myanmar.

Guided by the government, the whole society, including collective-, individual- and private-run enterprises, are all enthusiastic about participating in developing local tourism. Over 60 percent of tourism - related holiday villages, shops, transportation enterprises and restaurants are run by collective or private enterprises which made investments of over 10 billion yuan. Nearly all the ethnic families living in or around scenic areas are taking part in the development of tourist industry and selling self-made tourist commodities while displaying the culture and customs of the nationalities.

The flourishing tourist industry has propelled the rapid development of other sectors of the tertiary industry, such as catering, transportation and trade. Statistics show that Yunnan received more than 38 million Chinese and foreign tourists in 1999 and got 20.5 billion-yuan revenue from tourism, accounting for 10 percent of the provincial GDP, a rise from 5 percent in 1995.



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