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Shanghai Bank Financing Cross-Border Economic Development in SW China
The newly-established Kunming Branch of the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank has launched its first loan package worth 500 million yuan (about 60 million US dollars) to finance the cross-border economic development along the Lancang-Mekong river, which flows through southwest China's Yunnan Province down to Myanmar.
Zhou Weimin, deputy director of the Shanghai Government Economic Cooperation Office, said here today that, as the country' s commercial center, Shanghai will sustain its role in directing investment to support economic development in the western region.
Shanghai's investment will focus on infrastructure, trade, tourism and inviting skilled people to the river's valleys, Zhou said.
The Lancang-Mekong river runs through six countries -- China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. There are 243 million people living in the 2.33 million-sq-km river basins, which have abundant hydropower, mineral and tourism resources.
Cross-border economic cooperation in the river valleys, launched in the 1990s, has been expanded to embrace communications, energy, telecommunications, tourism, environmental protection, trade, investment, technology and anti-drug programs.
Yunnan's annual investment in road construction in the river valleys has amounted to over 10 billion yuan (about 1.2 billion US dollars) in the past two years. Communications investment from the other five countries has added up to 30 billion US dollars.
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