The Belt and Road Initiative and the Yangtze River Economic Belt are interconnected here

Zhao Ruijun, director of the Office of the Leading Group of China (Yunnan) Pilot Free Trade Zone and director of the Department of Commerce of Yunnan Province, said that the establishment of the pilot Free trade Zone has provided a major opportunity for Yunnan's high-quality leap-forward development. Since its establishment, Yunnan Pilot Free Trade Zone has fully implemented the requirements of the Party Central Committee and The State Council on speeding up the opening up along the border, focused on building an important channel for the interconnection of the "Belt and Road" and the Yangtze River Economic Belt, built an important node of the major channel connecting South Asia and Southeast Asia, and promoted the formation of China's radiation center and opening frontier for South Asia and Southeast Asia.

云南省发展改革委党组成员、副主任梁旭东说，习近平总书记对面向南亚东南亚辐射中心建设的总体要求，为新时代云南对外开放工作指明了前进方向、明确了发展目标、赋予了重大使命，是新时代云南高水平对外开放工作的行动纲领和根本遵循。

Since the "13th Five-Year Plan", Yunnan Provincial Party Committee and provincial government have continued to strengthen policy communication, facility connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration and people-to-people exchanges with South and Southeast Asian countries, and made every effort to build a regional international economic and trade center, a scientific and technological innovation center, a financial service center, and a cultural exchange center.

Yunnan has built a pilot free trade zone with high standards and promoted all-round opening up. Based on their own characteristics, the three districts take the initiative to plan reform and innovation. Up to now, 100% of the 106 national reform pilot tasks have formed work plans, 82 have been implemented, accounting for 77.4%, 119 experience cases have been summarized, 39 have been evaluated by third parties and reported to the National Ministry of Commerce, and 18 have been replicated and promoted in the province; 19 of the 53 provincial-level reform pilot tasks have been implemented, accounting for 35.8%.

Zhao Ruijun said that since the Yunnan Pilot Free Trade Zone was listed, Yunnan at all levels, departments and three districts have firmly established the idea of "one chess game" and steadily promoted the construction of the pilot free trade zone. In 2020, the finance department of Yunnan Province will arrange a special fund of 600 million yuan for the construction of the pilot free trade Zone, focusing on supporting industrial projects. Up to now, the total value of foreign trade in Yunnan Pilot Free Trade Zone is 13.105 billion yuan, about 160 new market entities are born every day, and about one foreign-funded enterprise is introduced every four days.

Yunnan enterprises also actively respond to the national "Belt and Road" initiative and seize the opportunity to build a radiation center for South Asia and Southeast Asia. From January to October 2020, the direct investment in countries along the "Belt and Road" was 636 million US dollars, accounting for 65.1% of Yunnan's total foreign investment, an increase of 6.15%. Chen Wancai, chief engineer of the Yunnan Provincial Market Supervision Administration, said that since the establishment of the Yunnan Pilot Free Trade Zone, a series of high-quality and efficient market entity registration services have been implemented to promote the rapid growth of the number of market entities.

In addition, Yunnan has held the 4th and 5th China South Asia - Expo, covering 10 provinces (cities) along the Yangtze River Economic Belt, 8 countries in South Asia and 11 countries in Southeast Asia, and hundreds of enterprises from countries and regions along the "Belt and Road" went to Kunming to participate in the exhibition and purchase negotiations. In December 2020, the "Never-ending Online Exhibition of the South China Fair" will be held, and 2D, 3D, VR and other technical means will be used to realize the digital transformation and upgrading of the South China Fair through the new digital exhibition platform (namely the "Online South China Fair" digital exhibition platform).

Kunming, close to the reality of Yunnan Pilot Free Trade Zone Kunming area, has formulated several policies at the district level to attract investment "golden Ten", resume work and production "warm heart ten", financial innovation and development, which have effectively promoted investment, talent and wisdom and industrial development. Wang Bing, deputy mayor of Kunming, said that Kunming arranges about 670 million yuan of funds for policy cash every year, which is the "dry goods" of real money and silver, more enterprises can benefit from it, which is highly consistent with the industrial development positioning of Kunming area of the Free trade Pilot zone, and is one of the best policies in Yunnan Province.

Yunnan Pilot Free Trade Zone Honghe area around processing and trade, health services, cross-border tourism, cross-border e-commerce and other key industries, adhere to the "leader" investment, door-to-door investment, set up a special class investment, investment and intelligence has achieved initial results. Honghe Deputy Governor Luo Rongxu introduced that in 2020, Honghe Area successfully signed 31 projects with a total investment of more than 30 million yuan, with a total investment of 34.218 billion yuan, promoted the start of new projects with a total investment of more than 30 million yuan, with a total investment of 4.582 billion yuan, and introduced 3.691 billion yuan of funds from outside the province.

Under the background of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, Yunnan has steadily promoted the construction of China's radiation center for South Asia and Southeast Asia. Relying on the golden waterway of the Yangtze River, as the new growth pole of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, Yunnan, which has achieved remarkable results in opening up to the outside world, is becoming an important node for the Yangtze River Economic Belt to connect with the "Belt and Road" with its unique comparative advantages.