Excerpt from the Speech of Li Jiating, Governor of Yunnan Province
Since the implementation of the policy of reform and opening-up, the various nationalities in Yunnan have strived to develop a flourishing economy by creating some pillar industries and to participate in economic co-operation with investors from home and abroad, greatly strengthening the comprehensive economic power of Yunnan and improving the infrastructures for developing foreign trade. Within an area of 200 km around Kunming ,the main lines of communication have been modernized, and the preliminary construction of a road network leading to borders and other provinces has been completed. The completion of the Nanning-Kunming and Guangtong-Dali railways and the re-opening of the Yunnan-vietnam Railway have increased the distance of rail lines to more than 2000km,forming a railway network linking neighboring and coastal provinces. The civil aviation of Yunnan has also made remarkable progress by building and extending 9 international airports, having 21 Being planes and opening up to 98 domestic and international airlines. The telecommunication facilities of Yunnan have also been improved by leaps and bounds, by means of satellites, optical cables, microwaves, program control, radio wave beepers, mobile phones and facsimile. The energy supply capacity of Yunnan has been reinforced, with the completion of Manwan hydroelectric power station boosting the capacity amounting to more than 6.88million KW. In addition, Yunnan has conducted some environmental protection projects and completed many urban infrastructures especially in Kunming in preparation for EXPO¡¯99. It is now widely acknowledged that the previous poor infrastructure, which was a barrier to progress, has now been improved to the point where Yunnan can offer an efficient and prosperous environment, which is second to none for large-scale foreign investment.
As a window and a frontier to Southeast Asia and South Asia, Yunnan is stridently implementing the reform-and-opening policy and engaging itself to attract foreign investment. Up to 1999,Yunnan acquired 1852 foreign investment projects, contracting 2.52 billion US$ of foreign investment among which receiving 1.22 billion actually. Today, in order to carry out the strategy of developing the west, Yunnan has set its own strategic goal-to make Yunnan, a province of green economy and folk cultures, becoming an international passage linking China to Southeast Asia and South Asia. We will seize this opportunity brought by the strategy to develop the west and utilize the favorable policies and measures to encourage investment on the development of the western area. Meanwhile, we will spare no effort to improve the environment for investment, consummating local investment laws and regulations, providing investors with complete and effective services and building up an investment environment conformed to international practices.