Kunming Area of China (Yunnan) Pilot Free Trade Zone insists on trying first and gives full play to the overlapping advantage of policies in the two regions, and reproduces the achievements of Kunming Area in reform and innovation in Laos Vientiane Saysettha Development Zone (hereinafter referred to as SDZ) in priority. At present, it has achieved a two-way free flow of cross-border personnel, cross-border capacity, cross-border logistics, cross-border finance, cross-border trade and other industrial elements.

The opening and operation of the China-Laos Railway and the entry into force of the RCEP (the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) have further widened Yunnan’s location advantage. To better promote the integrated development of economy and society along the railway, Kunming Area actively supports Yunnan Provincial Overseas Investment Co., Ltd, a state-owned enterprise in the area, to conduct overseas investment in the form of mixed ownership, to explore and create a new mode of “Free Trade Zone+Overseas Cooperation Zone” for internal and external linkage development, and to provide enterprises with precise service to construct SDZ.

As of the beginning of 2022, there have been 107 enterprises from China, Laos, Thailand, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and other countries and regions settled in SDZ, covering warehouses and logistics, energy and chemical, electronics manufacturing, biological medicine, agricultural products processing, textile processing, business service, comprehensive health and other industries. After the RCEP comes into force, Chinese enterprises and foreign enterprises in the zone have more close cooperation in international capacity, and resource exploitation and utilization. SDZ will become a service platform for state-owned enterprises going abroad. To meet the demands of regional development and the host country, SDZ built a batch of industrial projects of regional characteristics. Among them, Laos petroleum refinery project has effectively filled the emptiness in Laos petrochemical industry chain.

Yunnan Provincial Overseas Investment Co., Ltd. and Laos Vientiane municipal government co-fund and form Laos-China Joint Venture Investment Co., Ltd. as the main operator of SDZ. Guided by the model of “Industrial Development Zone + New City of Vientiane”, SDZ will build an industry park focusing on processing and manufacturing, entrepot trade, modern logistics, wellness ecology and a Vientiane New City. At present, it has constructed 80,000 square meters of standardized factories and 4,000 square meters of comprehensive service facilities in phase I, and developments of Phase II and Vientiane New City are being promoted in a well-planned way.

Click here to view Chinese report

(Editors: Lexi, Amy)