People's Republic of China

(Yunnan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region)

Yunnan Province

Abounding in Natural Resources

The Yun Mountains

Yunnan Province, south of the Yun Mountains in the extreme southwest of the PRC, houses an exceptionally rich biological diversity within its land area of 396,790 km2. It is the eighth largest province of the PRC, bordered to the south and west by the Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Viet Nam. Located on the lush Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, a continuation of the Tibetan Plateau to the northwest, the province is mountainous over 94% of its land area.

Agriculture is the single most important economic sector. Apart from subsistence crops, Yunnan grows rice, wheat, and other grains as major cash crops.

The mountainous nature of the province limits cultivable land to less than 10% of the total, yet farmers compose 80-95% of the labor force. Cultivation is intensive. Terraced farmlands gird the hills and mountains and traverse the smaller areas of river basins and floodplains.

More than 50 scenic spots of exceptional beauty make Yunnan a major tourist center as well. Within its borders are the primeval forests and magnificent animals of Xishuangbanna; the Stone Forest of Lunan; Kunming, the capital city, also once the secondary capital of a kingdom in the area; the lakes and mountains around Dali; and Lijiang under the snow-capped Jade Dragon Mountain.

The province abounds in natural resources. One third of the land is forested, twice the average elsewhere in the PRC. Yunnan not only has more species of tropical, subtropical, temperate, and frigid-zone plants than anywhere else, but also has many ancient derivative plants, as well as species introduced from abroad. Among the 30,000 species of plans in the PRC, 18,000 are found in Yunnan. There are also about 300 species of mammals, 780 species of birds, and numerous species of fish, reptiles, and amphibians.

Recognizing the harmful effect on the environment of past exploitation of natural resources, the Government is pursuing economic growth based on environmental sustainability. Agricultural and rural productivity must increase to raise incomes in the rural areas, where many of Yunnan's poor live. Governance, economic, and environmental reforms, and more investments in social infrastructure for human development, will allow people to develop their full potential and lead productive lives.

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Facts and Figures

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Source: Greater Mekong Subregion Atlas of the Environment

Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

Broadening the Benefits

The Li River near Guilin is one of Guangxi's famous tourism attractions.

The 13th GMS Ministerial Conference held in Vientiane, Lao PDR in December 2004 agreed to include Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (Guangxi) of the PRC in GMS Program. With a total land area of 236,700 square kilometers bordering the PRC's Guangdong, Hunan, Guizhou, and Yunnan provinces and Viet Nam, Guangxi is one of two provinces in the PRC that share borders with other GMS countries. Like Yunnan province, Guangxi has strong linkages with the GMS in, among other things, resources, culture, trade, transport, and tourism.

Guangxi's participation in the GMS Program is seen as a natural northward extension of the GMS' geography-a clear outcome of strengthening economic relations between the PRC and other GMS countries. The value of total trade between Guangxi and other GMS countries expanded from $327 million in 2001 to $822 million in 2004, or about 20% of Guangxi's total foreign trade. Cross-border tourism is flourishing, with an estimated 2 million tourists crossing the PRC (Guangxi)-Viet Nam border in 2004. In recent years, Guangxi and its immediate GMS neighbor, Viet Nam, have entered into contracts on joint natural resource development and manufacturing. The prime ministers of the two countries have also agreed to embark on the "Two Corridors and One Belt" initiative involving Yunnan province and Guangxi in the PRC, and the northern part of Viet Nam. Technological and cultural exchange programs between the PRC and other GMS countries have also accelerated in recent years, including at the annual PRC-ASEAN Expo, which is regularly held in Guangxi's capital city of Nanning.

A study that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) conducted in November 1995 concluded that the closer integration of Guangxi into the GMS will be a "win-win" situation for both the PRC and other GMS countries. On the one hand, this would foster even closer economic relations between the PRC and other GMS countries, and support the establishment of the PRC-ASEAN Free Trade Area. Guangxi's closer integration would enhance the overall attractiveness of the GMS as a large and growing market, as an appealing investment and tourist destination. It would also allow other GMS countries to strengthen their linkages with and capitalize on the wealth of opportunities offered by the relatively prosperous coastal provinces of the PRC.

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Source: Ronnie Butiong