4.10.2001

YUNNAN PROVINCE（雲南省）

 

Economic Indicators

	1999		2000
Economic Indicators	Value	Growth	Value	Growth
		(%, y-o-y)		(%, y-o-y)
Area (sq km)	394,139	--	394,139	--
Population (mn)	41.9	1.2	42.4^	1.2
Gross Domestic Product (RMB bn)	185.6	7.2*	195.5	7.1*
Per Capita GDP (RMB)	4,452	2.2	4,637	4.2
Disposable Income Per Capita
- urban (RMB)	6,178.7	2.2	6,324.6	2.4
- rural (RMB)	1,437.6	3.6	1,478.6	2.9
Fixed-assets Investment (RMB bn)	71.7	6.6	69.8	-2.7
Added Value Output
- primary industry (RMB bn)	41.3	4.6*	43.6	5.7*
- secondary industry (RMB bn)	82.5	7.1*	84.3	5.7*
- tertiary industry (RMB bn)	61.8	9.0*	67.6	9.7*
Retail Sales (RMB bn)	53.9	7.8	58.3	8.2
Inflation (Consumer Price Index,%)	-0.3		-2.1
Exports (US$ million)	1,034	-11.9	1,175	13.6
- by FIEs (US$ million)	42	12.2	81	93.0
Imports (US$ million)	625	-14.3	638	2.0
- by FIEs (US$ million)	97	-10.2	115	18.5
Foreign Direct Investment
- number of projects	138	16.0	106	-23.2
- contracted amount (US$ million)	326	-1.3	297	-8.8
- utilized amount (US$ million)	154	5.6	128	-16.8

Notes: * In Renminbi real terms       

^latest population census, 1999 figure was estimate based on previous survey

Sources: China Statistical Abstract, 2001

 

General Background

 

Yunnan - abbreviated as Dian（滇）- is situated at the southwestern part of China, bordering on Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam.  Mountains and highlands constitute 94% of the province's total area.

 

Ethnic minorities in Yunnan account for 34% of its total population.  Major ethnic groups include Yi（彝）, Bai（白）, Hani（哈尼）, Zhuang（壯）, Dai（傣）and Miao（苗）.

 

The provincial capital is Kunming（昆明）which enjoys the same preferential policies as in the coastal open cities.  Other open cities include Ruili county（瑞麗縣）, Wanding city（畹町市）and Hekou city（河口市）.  

 

Yunnan is one of the major production bases of copper, lead, zinc, tin and aluminum in China.  Gejiu（箇舊）city is well known as "the Kingdom of Zinc" with the reserves ranked first in the country.  The Yunxi brand refined tin is one of the main products in Gejiu, which is registered on the London Nonferrous Metal Exchange.  Besides, reserves of germanium, indium, zirconium, platinum, rock salt, sylvite, nickel, phosphate, mirabilite, arsenic and blue asbestos are also high.

 

The province is one of the major forest zones in China.  Its forest area accounts for 24% of the country's total.  Yunnan is also an important base of aromatic plants and flora in China with more than 300 varieties of essential oil-bearing plants and 2,500 kinds of ornamental plants and flowers. 

 

Yunnan aims at developing as the largest flower production and export base in China and Asia.  At present, Yunnan has three big flower production areas including Kunming, a temperate fresh cut flower production area, the tropical flower production area in Xishuangbanna（西雙版納）and Yuanjiang（元江）, and cold bulb flower production area in Diqing（迪慶）and Lijiang（麗江）.  The annual flower output in the province reaches 1.1 billion bunches. Utilizing its floral resource, Kunming hosted the 14^th International Horticulture Expo in 2000.

 

Yunnan's main agricultural crops are rice, corn, wheat, sugar cane and beans as well as rubber, tea, tobacco, walnut, cashew nuts and coffee.  The province also has some famous Chinese medicine herbs such as Ginseng（人參）, Danggui（當歸）, Fuling（茯苓）, Tianma（天麻）and Sharen（砂仁）.  The province is the second largest sugarcane production base in China.  Total outputs of sugarcane accounted for 18% of the country's total reaching 15.3 million tons in 1999. 

 

The province has more than 40 freshwater lakes including Dianchi（滇池）, Erhai（洱海）and Fuxian（撫仙湖）that can be further developed as bases of aquaculture.

 

Infrastructure   

 

Water Transport --- The Lancangjiang River（瀾滄江）, which connects the Mekong River（湄公河）, extends southward through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam to the South China Sea. Shipping services are also available from Zhaotong's Shuifu port（昭通縣水富港）to Shanghai.  The landlocked province, however, relies more on railways leading to Guangxi's Beihai（北海）and other ports in Southern China.

 

To foster the development of the economic development of the Mekong Valley, the first international commercial water transport route from Jinghong to destinations at Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam is opened.

 

Railways --- Major railways in the province include Chengdu-Kunming（成昆線：成都－昆明）, Guiyang-Kunming（貴昆線：貴陽－昆明）, Kunming-Hekou（昆河線：昆明－河口）and Nanning-Kunming（南昆線: 南寧－昆明）.  Other railways include Guangtong-Chuxiong（廣通－楚雄）, Guangtong-Dali（廣通－大理）and Kunming-Yuxi（昆明－玉溪）.  A new railway, Neijing-Kunming（內昆線: 內江－昆明）which is expected to be completed by October 2001, will pass through several cities in Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces. This railway is an integral part of the Southwest Sea Passage.

 

In the tenth Five-Year Plan, Yunnan is trying to promote trade with  Southeast Asian countries constructing the Southwest Cross Border Passage（西南進出境通道）. Railways to Vietnam and Myanmar are under construction or upgrading.

 

Highways --- Kunming and Dali are the major transportation hubs in Yunnan.  Major highways include Yunnan-Guizhou（滇黔線）, Yuannan-Guangxi（滇桂線）, Yunnan-Sichuan（滇川線）and Yunnan-Tibet（滇藏線）, which connect Yunnan with neighbouring provinces and autonomous regions.  Three highways from Yunnan to Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam will be upgraded. Yunnan plans to invest more in the tenth Five-Year Plan. From January to May in 2001, Yunnan invested RMB 3.7 billion on highway constructions, ranking top among all western provinces and 5^th overall in China.

 

Air Transport －The province has 9 civil airports included Kunming, Dali, Baoshan（保山）, Xishuangbana（西雙版納）, Simao（思茅）, Zhaotong（昭通）, Lijiang（麗江）, Diqing（迪慶）, etc.  Besides, the Kunming Wujiaba （巫家壩） International Airport offers direct flights to Hong Kong, Japan, Bangkok, Singapore, Yangoon, and Chiangmai. 

 

Telecommunications  --- Telecommunication has been developed rapidly over the past years.  By March-2001, subscribers for mobile phone services were over 2 million.

 

Electricity  --- In addition to the existing thermal power plants, a number of staircase hydropower stations on the lower- and middle-reaches of the Lancangjiang River are under construction.  In 2000 Yunnan had generated 11.2 billion KW electricity, ranking 2^nd overall in China.

 

Industries

 

In 2000, industrial output of the province totalled Rmb159 (+8%) billion and industries are mainly located at Kunming, Yuxi, Qujing（曲靖）and Red River（紅河） .

 

Food processing industry is significant in the province and Yunnan Puer Tea（普洱茶）is well-known at home and abroad.  Tobacco and cigarettes are also famous － "Yunnan Cigarettes" are the best brandnames in the country with brandnames include "Hongtashan"（紅塔山）, "Ashima"（阿詩瑪）, "Yunyian"（云煙）and "Hongmei"（紅梅）.  Yuxi（玉溪）is one of the most important tobacco production bases in China and the nation's largest cigarette manufacturer, Hongta Group（玉溪紅塔煙草集團）, is located in this city.

 

Yunnan is also one of the major coffee growing and processing bases in China.  Famous coffee enterprises, Maxwell and Nestle companies, have both signed contracts with Yunnan to provide 10,000 tons of coffee beans annually. By May, 2001, Puer had become the largest coffee plantation base in China.

 

Yunnan's textiles, clothing and leather industries are also developed.  Other major industries include tourism, rubber, forestry & papermaking, chemicals, building materials, machinery and other light industries.

 

In the tenth Five-Year Plan (2001-2005), the province will invest a total of 150 million yuan (US$18.07 million) to set up a special fund to further develop the export of high-tech products in the fields of biological technology, medicine, new materials, electronic information, environmental protection and the optical-electromechanical field.

 

Tourism

 

Yunnan is one of the renowned tourist centres and there are more than 50 scenic spots in the province. Major touristic spots include the mysterious Xishuangbanna（西雙版納）, the wonder of the world - Lunan Stone Forest（路南石林）, the Spring City - Kunming, the ancient kingdom capital - Dali, and the beautiful Lijiang（麗江）under the snow-capped Jade Dragon Mountain.  

 

In 2000, over 1 million tourists (-4%) visited the region and generated a revenue of US$340 million (-3.1%).

 

Consumer Market

 

Retail sales of consumer goods in Yunnan rose by 8.2% to Rmb58.3 billion in 2000.  Major consumer centre is located in Kunming and its retail sales accounts for 37% of the total. 

 

The Kunming Department Store Co. Ltd.（昆明百貨大樓）is the largest retailer in Yunnan.  Other major retailers include Kunming Wuhua Shopping Arcade（五華大廈）, Kunming Cherry Shopping Centre and Kunming Yuandong Shopping Centre（昆明大觀商業城）, etc.  Besides, Wal-Mart from US（美國沃爾瑪公司）is one of the major investors of Kunming Yuandong Shopping Centre.

 

Other major retailers include Kunming Sakura Shopping Centre（昆明櫻花購物中心）, Kunming Southwest Commercial Building（昆明西南商業大廈）, Kunming Panlong Building（昆明盤龍大廈）, Kunming Kundu Shopping Centre（昆明昆都商場）, Kunming Tianyuan Shopping Centre（昆明天元商場）and Zhengyi Department Store（正義百貨商店）; as well as the Xiaguan Department Store（大理下關百貨大樓）and Gucheng Shopping Centre（古城商場）in Dali. The Kunming International Flower Trade and Auction Center（昆明國際花卉交易和拍賣中心）is the largest flower market in China.

 

Foreign Trade

 

Yunnan's exports rose by 13.6% to US$1,175 million in 2000 and US$81 million (+93%) was handled by foreign-invested enterprises.  Major export goods were phosphates, jade ornaments, garments, kidney beans, tobacco, tea, tin and machine tools.  Major export markets included Hong Kong, Myanmar, Japan, the US and Vietnam. 

 

Imports grew by 2% to US$638 million in 2000.  Major import goods were agricultural products, machinery for tobacco and raw materials. 

 

Hong Kong was Yunnan’s biggest trading partner, ranking 2^nd in Yunnan’s export and 1^st in Yunnan’s import. In 2000 Yunnan exported US$210.9 million (+21.5%) to and imported US$130.9 million (+10.1%) from Hong Kong. Other major trading partners of Yunnan are Myanmar, South Korea, U.S and Japan.

 

Yunnan approved more than 28 counties as border trade zones that were located at Ruili, Wanding and Hekou.  By end-1999, Yunnan's total border trade with Myanmar, Vietnam and Laos reaching US$287.8 million (+120%) with exports amounting to US$232 million (+160.4%).  Among these border counties, Ruili accounted for 70% of the province’s border trade, which was also 34% of the total national border trade. Major export goods were sugar, beer, cigarette, garments, cement, oil products, paraffin wax, rubber, tropical fruits, etc. and major import goods included timber, Chinese medical herbs, etc.

 

Since 1979, Yunnan has played an important role in opening Southwest China to the rest of the world.  The State Council approved 8 counties as state-level ports.  The biggest of them, the Tengchong County, handled 126,000 tons of cargo amounted to Rmb280 million in 1999. 

 

Foreign Investment

 

In 2000, the number of approved foreign-funded projects totalled 106 (-23.2%) with contracted foreign investment of US$297 million (-8.8%).  The province actually used more than US$128 million (-16.8%) of foreign capital in the year. 

 

Hong Kong is the biggest investor in Yunnan. In 2000, the actual utilized investment from Hong Kong was US$75.3 million. Other major investors were from the Virgin Islands, U.S, Japan, Germany, Singapore and Taiwan.

 

Major invested sectors included metallurgy, machinery, electronics, textiles, light industry, printing, agriculture, animal husbandry and the tertiary sectors such as tourism, transport, post & telecommunications and real estates. 

 

The Coca-Cola Company is one of the major investors in Yunnan.  Recently, the company announced the opening of its 24th bottling plant in China.  So far, Coca-Cola has invested more than US$1.1 billion in China since it resumed the business in the country in 1979, when China started its opening policy.

 

Kunming is one of the major cities in Yunnan to attract foreign investment.  At present, there were 1,168 foreign-invested enterprises with contracted and actual utilized foreign investment of US$1.7 billion and US$861 million respectively.  Foreign investments were mainly concentrated in the sectors of floral, food, timber processing, real estate, tourism, electrical and mechanical industry.

 

Yuxi, an industrial city in central Yunnan, also attracts foreign investment.  Apart from tobacco production, Yuxi now concentrates on the construction of infrastructure facilities.  Hong Kong Flying World Investment Ltd. has invested US$44 million to re-build or manage three highways within the Yuxi area : Yuxi-Jiangchuan, Tonghai-Jiangchuan and Tonghai-Yuxi. 

 

To boost the development of the central and western regions in China, the State Council has granted further tax incentives to foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) in China.  Under the existing policy, FIEs are entitled to a three-year tax reduction and exemption.  The new policy allows foreign-invested enterprises in the central and western regions to enjoy another three years of preferential tax rate when the current preferential term expires.  The tax rate can be further reduced to 10% if an enterprise is proved to export more than 70% of its annual output in terms of value.

 

Economic Indicators of Major Cities (2000)

	Population	GDP	Industrial Output	Retail Sales
Cities	('000)	(Rmb bn)	(Rmb bn)	(Rmb bn)
Kunming      昆明	4,809	62.6   (+8.4%)	66.2     (+14.9%)	24.0   (+10.1%)
Yuxi             玉溪	2,017	29.5   (+3.2%)	29.5     (+9.8%)	3.6     (+2.3%)
Qujing         曲靖	5,471	21.3   (+8.2%)	16.7     ( -2.7%)	4.7     (+7.1%)
Red River     紅河	3,941	14.4   (+8.0%)	14.0     (+3.4%)	3.9     (+7.7%)
Dali             大理	3,286	13.5   (+7.4%)	7.1       ( -15.8%)	3.7     (+4.3%)
Chuxiong     楚雄	2,509	10.6   (+7.7%)	7.3       (+0.6%)	2.7     (+8.6%)

Note: Figures in  (   ) represent year-on-year growth                 Source : Yunnan Statistical Yearbook,2001

 

Major Economic & Technological Development Zones (ETDZs)

 

Kunming Economic and Technological Development Zone（昆明經濟技術開發區）, the zone has been upgraded as state-level in Feb 2000.   It mainly develops commerce and trade, real estate and hi-tech industries.  By end-1999, the zone has approved 236 foreign invested projects and 12 of them exceeded US$10 million.  Some international renowned corporations from Singapore, the UK, Thailand, Hon Kong also invested in the zone.

 

Kunming New & Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone（昆明高新技術產業開發區）, approved by the State Council in 1992, focuses mainly on the development of biology engineering, biomedical engineering, combined technique of optical, mechanical & electrical engineering, new building materials and information technology.

 

Kunming Dianchi Tourism & Vacation Zone（昆明滇池旅遊度假區）, approved by the State Council in 1992 as one of the 12 state-level vacation and tourism development zones. A great number of holiday facilities were completed and more projects are under construction.

 

Ruili Border Trade Economic Cooperation Zone（瑞麗邊境經濟合作區）and Wanding Boundary Economic Cooperation Zone（畹町邊境經合作區）were approved by the State Council in 1992 to develop border trade with Myanmar

 

Other development zones in Yunnan include :

 

l           Qujiang（曲江）Economic and Technological Development Zone

l           Mengzi  Economic and Technological Development Zone

 

l           Yuxi（玉溪）Economic and Technological Development Zone

l           Mangshi Economic and Technological Development Zone

l           Dali（大理）Economic and Technological Development Zone

l           Chuxiong（楚雄）Economic and Technological Development Zone 

l           Songming Yanglin Experimental Zone for County & Township Industries

 

 

l           Hekou（河口）Boundary Economic Cooperation Zone

l           Jiegao Border Trade Economic Zone

 

l           Lijiang Yulong（麗江玉龍）Snow Mountain Tourism Zone

l           Cangshan Mountain & Erhai Lake（蒼山洱海）Tourism and Vacation Zone at Dali

l           Xishuangbanna（西雙版納）Tourism and Vacation Zone

l           Tengchong（騰沖） (Tourism and Vacation Zone

l           Yangzonghai Lake Tourism and Vacation Zone

l           Fuxian（撫仙湖）Lake Tourism and Vacation Zone