Mohan Border Trade Zone - the China/ASEAN Link

By LIU HUANZHI

A bird's-eye view of the Mohan Border Trade Zone.

Mohan is a beautiful frontier port in Yunnan's Xishuangbanna, facing Laos across the No. 29 Sino-Laos boundary tablet. The Kunming-Bangkok Highway, currently under construction, crosses the border at Mohan.

On completion of the highway, traveling from Mohan to Kunming, or outbound to the Laotian capital Vientiane will take just one day. A trip to Thailand's state level land port Ching Khong takes only three hours, from where traveling on to Bangkok takes just one day, continuing onwards to Malaysia, and Singapore takes another day or two. Mohan is 180 kilometers from the Xishuangbanna Prefecture capital Jinghong, and is the only national-level land port of entry to Laos.

The year 2001 saw the establishment of three border trade zones in three national-level ports: Mohan, Jiegao (on the Sino-Myanmar border), and Hekou (on the Sino-Vietnam border). The establishment of the Mohan Border Trade Zone on May 22, 2001 brought with it preferential trade, industry, commerce, finance, and taxation policies. Priority will be given to developing commercial trade, tourism, the processing industry, and storage so as to achieve internationalization and modernization. Care will also be taken to preserve the ecology and traditions of ethnic groups. In the past two years, a total of 13 project contracts have been signed, some of which will be completed by the end of this year. They include the 20-million-yuan 1.6-kilometer Landscape Avenue, the 40-million-yuan International Commerce and Trade Center, and several frontier trade markets. By 2010 Mohan's export trade volume will reach US $600 million.

On November 4, 2002 China and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) signed a framework agreement on China-ASEAN comprehensive economic cooperation. This marked the official launch of a process that will lead to the establishment of a China-ASEAN free-trade area by 2010. Inspired by Mohan's management mode, Laos, Thailand and other neighboring countries have successively set up border trade, special economic and free-trade zones. This has created a favorable environment for Sino-ASEAN free trade.

Mohan is fertile investment soil. The advance of the Western Development strategy, the Lancang/Mekong River sub-regional cooperation, acceleration of the Kunming-Bangkok Highway construction, and the beginning of Sino-ASEAN free-trade area construction all mean that Mohan will continue to achieve.