China – Mekong – Lancang Cooperation

Republic of China

The Royal Thai Consulate-General, Kunming
Kunming is the capital city of Yunnan Province and China's southwestern transportation hub that connects with South Asia and Southeast Asia. It is also containing the most ethnic diversity in China. The geographic is plateau that cause cool weather throughout the year, so called “the City of Spring”. The local government has policies to promote industries in the fields of food processing, tea production, textiles, herbal medicine, new materials, electronics, and online trade. Main agricultural products include tea, coffee, herbs, and flowers. Tropical crops such as rice, bananas, and beans can be grown in the southern area. Kunming has modern technology in food production and packaging. The provincial government places importance on food security and safety throughout the supply chain. There are specialized food testing and research institutes. For Thai entrepreneurs who wish to export products to Kunming should be ready to respond to demand for large volumes of products as well as find reliable partners. Brand registration should be studied carefully to prevent violation of intellectual property rights. Potential consumer products include sunscreen cosmetic and beauty supplies as a result of all-year dry and sunny weather

Yunnan Provincial Federation of Industry and Commerce
The federation is a government association of Yunnan Province with approximately 130,000 member companies. The main mission is to provide advice to strengthen business sector and also be a linkage between the government and private sectors. For the overall economic policy, Yunnan government focuses on setting up special economic zones, ports, and land routes to attract investment as a trading gateway to South Asia and Southeast Asia. The Chinese government has placed a policy on food security and food safety through regulatory agencies specific to agriculture, marketing, and customs. Important policies such as “From farm to mouth” to ensure that people have sufficient and safe food for consumption. The 3-year action plan, based on the Chinese government's 5-year national strategic plan includes maintaining the strength of Yunnan's agricultural products, which are highland economic crops, including tea, coffee, flowers, herbs, and beans. Other economically important sectors include solar energy, wind, water, tourism, mineral smelting, biotechnology, and digital economy which is a new and rapidly growing field.

Study on economic and local conditions
1) Mi-le is a small city located in the southeastern part of Yunnan Province about 1 hour traveling from Kunming by China high-speed train. Mi-le is a model city that has successfully embraced nature's diversity as a tourist attraction including amusement parks, urban parks, hot spring, and scenic spots in various areas. The city has developed by restoration of the old city and ecosystem as well as river channel management to create a new city that combines culture and tourism highlights. In addition, Mi-le City has developed industrial chains for biological, medical, green energy production, new construction materials, and aviation

2) China high speed train covers 42,000 km out of 155,000 km in China's rail transport in 2022 with maximum speed 350 km/hr. There is a plan to increase high speed train to 50,000 km within 2025 with the goal for high-speed rail to cover more than 90 percent of routes between main and secondary cities within China. Yunnan Province Southern China is considered as an important region of the transportation and logistics center to the southwestern region of China which links 8 domestic railway lines and 5 international railway lines. One of them is the China-Laos or Lancang Train project between Kunming and Vientiane with total distance of 1,035 km for people connection and especially bring benefit to agricultural products transportation that have a limited storage time and easily perishable.

3) Kunming Botanical Garden is one of the tourist attractions in Kunming as spring city. It also plays an important role as a research center for the conservation of rare wild plant species of China under the Rare Wild Plant Restoration Protection Project of the Central Government to jointly conserve rare wild plants using scientific methods. The garden is divided into 16 zones, such as the leaf and fruit garden, hundred types of grass garden, rare wild plant garden, camellia garden, and an aquatic botanical garden that demonstrates the diversity and unique ecosystem of Yunnan Province. In addition, Kunming City has been selected to host the 15th Session of the Convention on Biological Diversity Conference of the Parties (CBD COP 15) from 11 - 15 October 2021 in Kunming and via videoconferencing under Topic: “Ecological Civilization: Joining in building a community for all life on Earth”. "Kunming Declaration" was endorsed by the environment ministers of the member countries to express the intentions to reduce threats and impacts on biological diversity towards achieving the vision of the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2050.