The traffic flow of international freight yards is woven, the "golden channel" effect of the China-Laos Railway continues to be released, and the border trade between people from "turning through boxes and cabinets" to "smart machine test"... These scenes are the microcosm of Yunnan's "port economy" rushing forward. In the first half of this year, Yunnan's total import and export value of goods trade was 127.39 billion yuan, an increase of 3.2% year-on-year. Behind the data leaping is the deep transformation of Yunnan using ports as a fulcrum to leverage high-quality development.

As one of the core pillars of the "three major economies" strategy planned by the Yunnan Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Government, the port economy is leaping from the traditional "channel economy" to the "port hub economy" integrating logistics, trade, processing and service, becoming a strong engine driving the high-quality development of the province. Yunnan is using ports as traffic entrances to transform location advantages into development success.

Large channel pulls the railway artery to activate open ends

At Mohan Station, Pu'er Train Department, China Railway Kunming Bureau Group Co., Ltd., the "Iron Camel Fleet" shuttles day and night.

Statistics from China Railway Kunming Bureau Group Co., Ltd. show that in the first half of this year, the Zhonglao Railway sent a total of 10.07 million passengers, an increase of 1.7% year-on-year; the total number of cargo transported across the line exceeded 12.6 million tons, an increase of 25.9% year-on-year, and the quality of passenger and freight transportation has both increased, and the "golden line" is full of vitality.

A cold chain train carrying fruits is driving on the China-Laos Railway (photo taken on July 10, 2024). Posted by Xinhuanet (photo taken by Yang Yongquan)

Since the opening of the China-Laos Railway, when tropical fruits in South Asia and Southeast Asia are on the market every year, a large number of fruits such as durian, mangosteen, longan and other fruits are continuously transported to the domestic market.

Han Jiayuan, freight duty officer at Mohan Station of Pu'er Vehicle Service Section of China Railway Kunming Bureau Group Co., Ltd., introduced that for the import of tropical fruits such as durian and mangosteen, the railway department coordinated and cooperated with the unit in a timely manner, and the customs clearance time for a single batch of fruits was shortened to 3 hours as soon as possible, with almost zero losses.

Multi-department collaboration, innovate customs clearance methods, shorten inspection time... It is not uncommon in various ports in Yunnan Province. Since the beginning of this year, Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture has actively made up for the shortcomings in port facilities, worked together to improve the level of customs clearance services, and continuously optimized the business environment. Up to now, the value of imported durian (including frozen durian meat and frozen durian with shell) at Tianbao Port has exceeded 2.8 billion yuan, more than 9 times the number of last year. This year, the import and export of frozen durian meat was realized for the first time; the import and export of aluminum products was realized for the first time, forming an effective linkage with the leading industries of Wenshan Prefecture.

"For fresh food products, we have specially configured precise testing equipment to optimize the entire operating process." Wang Yinghuai, deputy secretary of the Party Working Committee of Yunnan Malipo Border Economic Cooperation Zone, said that in the past, durian needed to be sent to Kunming for testing, but now it is locally tested in Wenshan Prefecture, and the customs clearance time has been reduced by five or six days.

The Malutang Super Bridge of Gastrodia Ma Expressway under construction (photo taken on July 20). Posted by Xinhuanet (photo by Zhu Yushu)

In addition, the construction of the Tianma Expressway project connecting Tianbao Port and Malipo County is in full swing, and the overall project progress has reached 75%. After the project is completed and opened to traffic, it will improve the efficiency of economic and trade exchanges at Tianbao Port and the capacity of the Sino-Vietnam channel, further helping Tianbao Port's "port economy" to achieve "acceleration".

Smart customs clearance empowers soft environment to create new competitive advantages

"The core of the competitiveness of the port economy lies in the level of customs clearance facilitation." In Yunnan, technological empowerment is making the ports perfectly unified "control" and "fast communication".

At the Mohan Port, the first batch of smart port construction pilot ports in Yunnan Province, Mengla Customs has innovated intelligent supervision scenarios such as 5G individual, one-stop inspection and release, and multi-trade integration, and jointly with railway and border inspection departments to optimize information interoperability and process reengineering, reducing the customs operation time for each train to 25 minutes, significantly improving passenger customs clearance experience.

Mengla Customs Officers conducted supervision and inspection of imported mangosteen at the Mohan Railway Port (photo taken on July 31). Posted by Xinhuanet (photo by Zhou Wei)

Li Chunwei, deputy chief of the Supervision Section of Mengla Customs Port Supervision Section, introduced that in order to promote the healthy development of border residents' trade, Mengla Customs has deeply implemented the cooperation concept of "smart customs, smart borders, and smart connectivity", and used "Internet border residents' trade" to create a full-chain scenario of border residents' trade from overseas to domestic, effectively improving the efficiency of customs supervision services.

Foreign students praised the high-quality services of Mohan border police officers at the Mohan Railway Port (photo taken on July 25, 2024). Posted by Xinhuanet (photo taken by Huang Yuanfei)

In order to further improve the customs clearance experience of foreign nationals coming to China, better show China's image, and promote the high-level opening-up and high-quality development of the country with high-quality customs clearance services, the Mohan Entry and Exit Border Inspection Station focuses on the customs clearance experience of foreign personnel, and has launched more than 10 customs clearance convenience measures such as online customs clearance reservation for tourist groups and pre-employment foreign entry card filling point. The overall inspection efficiency of border inspection has been increased by 30%, effectively ensuring the safety, fast and smooth customs clearance at the port.

As an important gateway to South Asia and Southeast Asia by land, Baoshan City relies on its location advantages to improve port functions with intelligent construction. Tengchong Houqiao Port has built a "1 4 N" smart system, equipped with CT-type fast luggage item inspection system, smart health inspection channel, intelligent health declaration terminal and other advanced equipment, so as to achieve personnel passing health inspection in 5 seconds and completing luggage inspection in 30 seconds, and greatly improve customs clearance efficiency.

Through departmental collaboration, technology empowerment and process optimization, Yunnan Port is forming a new pattern of intelligent supervision, precise services, and efficient customs clearance, injecting new impetus into high-level opening-up and high-quality development.

The jump in hub energy levels drives the reshaping of the economic pattern

In Mohan Yanbian Industrial Park, after the opening of Nanpo International Industrial Demonstration Park, the number of market entities increased from 3,393 at the end of 2022 to 6,214 in the first quarter of 2025, attracting the implementation of industrial projects such as electronic information, biomedicine, textile and clothing, and traditional Chinese medicinal materials processing, and the diversified industrial structure has begun to take shape.

Nanpo International Industrial Demonstration Park (Data Photo). Xinhuanet (Photo provided by Kunming Municipal Party Committee Propaganda Department)

The prosperity of the Mohan border industrial park is a vivid epitome of Yunnan's efforts to develop the port economy.

Since the beginning of this year, Yunnan Province has pragmatically promoted the construction of the "Belt and Road" southbound international land-sea channel, and the "Central Asia Freight Train (Lan-Mekong Express)" multimodal freight brands have become more abundant. The China-Laos Railway has sent more than 54.6 million passengers and transported more than 62 million tons of cargo. The construction of the "2 3 N" border industrial parks has accelerated, and the textile and clothing and consumer electronics industries have accelerated their gathering. A total of 191 enterprises have been settled. It is difficult to find a standard factory building in industrial parks in Ruili and other places. The 9th South China Expo was held at a high level, with the amounts of signed investment projects and foreign trade contracts reaching 13.61 billion yuan and 8.48 billion yuan respectively.

Looking at the whole province, ports with unique characteristics are relying on the advantages of large channels to develop cross-border trade, on-site processing, bonded logistics, cross-border tourism and other formats according to local conditions, forming a development pattern of "port-driven, hinterland support, and provincial linkage". With the in-depth implementation of the "three major economies" strategy, relying on the powerful engine of port economy, Yunnan is stepping from the geographical edge to the forefront of opening up, and in the magnificent journey of Chinese-style modernization, it strives to write a new chapter of openness and leapfrog development along the border. (End) (Luo Chunming and Liu Qi)