Yunnan, Guangxi FTZs launched 
2019-09-03
Two new pilot free trade zones in Yunnan and Guangxi were launched on Friday, marking the first time China has set up pilot FTZs in border regions.
The two are among a batch of six new pilot FTZs in Shandong, Jiangsu, Guangxi, Hebei, Yunnan and Heilongjiang, which brings the total number of China’s pilot FTZs to 18 since the country started piloting FTZs in Shanghai in 2013.
The pilot FTZ of Yunnan covers parts of Kunming, the provincial capital, Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture that neighbors Vietnam, and Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, which borders Myanmar. It will innovate modes of cross-border economic cooperation and strive to build itself into China’s open front to South Asia and Southeast Asia.
Guangxi’s FTZ will focus on financial services, smart logistics, the digital economy, emerging manufacturing industries, port shipping logistics, international trade, components of new energy vehicles and cross-border tourism.
“The new pilot FTZs are conducive to cultivating new growth engines in the southwest region. They will boost the development of the western region and the coordinated development across regions, and further deepen China’s cooperation with South and Southeast Asian countries,” said Zhou Xining of the Yunnan International Trade Association.
“A prominent feature of the new round of development is balanced opening-up, which will be extended to the central and western regions,” said Ge Hongliang, a researcher at the China-ASEAN Research Center at Guangxi University for Nationalities.
Linking China with South Asia and Southeast Asia, Guangxi and Yunnan have maintained close economic ties with neighboring countries for decades. Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have been Guangxi’s largest foreign trade partner for 17 years in a row. 
Guangxi’s Beibu Gulf is an important transit route in the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor that connects western China and Southeast Asia. Shipping routes link the gulf with over 200 global ports.
Yunnan’s trade with ASEAN increased 13.6 percent year on year to reach 44.2 billion yuan (US$6.4 billion) in the first five months of this year. Its trade with South Asian nations also surged 75.4 percent to over 1.5 billion yuan in the same period. 
“The pilot FTZs are a reflection of China’s policy of continuously expanding reform and opening-up, and is conducive to continue stimulating the development potential of the border areas,” Ge added.
