Yunnan stands out in Sri Lanka-Myanmar-China connection under BRI

Over the past decade since the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was proposed, it has become an important global public product, generating tangible benefits for participating countries including increased investment, job creation and people's livelihood improvement. The BRI has gradually progressed from an idea into actions and from vision to reality by yielding fruitful results to countries and people around the world. Now China aims to promote high-quality, sustainable and people-centered development of the BRI through joint efforts to bring brighter prospects for the next decade.

On November 24th, China published a document entitled "Vision and Actions for High-Quality Belt and Road Cooperation: Brighter Prospects for the Next Decade," which specified the key areas and directions for Belt and Road cooperation in the next 10 years.

The BRI has been mainly focused on policy coordination, infrastructure connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration and people-to-people ties in the past decade, but in the new document BRI added cooperation in new fields: green development, new forms and models of digital cooperation, technology innovation and international cooperation in health.

Under the BRI, China also establishes many international economic corridors and one of them is China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC). This is one of the new and prominent corridors as it is the only corridor that provides China direct access to the Indian Ocean through Myanmar while boosting development in landlocked Yunnan Province. This CMEC land bridge is important for acquisition of trading routes as well as for security since this corridor offers an alternative to the narrow and congested Malacca Strait where the U.S. has a strong military influence. 

The CMEC starts in southern China's landlocked province of Yunnan and goes through Myanmar's second-largest city, Mandalay in central Myanmar before reaching the south to Yangon and west to the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Rakhine state.

The “Y-shape” multi-billion-dollar CMEC stretches 1,700 km in length which encompass major roads and railways to link China’s Yunnan province with Myanmar’s major cities and economic special zones. The Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone, the China-Myanmar Border Economic Zone and the New Yangon City project are the three pillars, which form the supporting framework for the CMEC.

Aside from the initial plan, it appears that CMEC will be expanded up to Sri Lanka as per the 10-year vision, action plan for BRI for the next decade. This new proposal to extend the CMEC to Sri Lanka has been first disclosed by the special envoy of Chinese President Xi Jinping, state councillor Shen Yiqin when met Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on 20th November at the Presidential Secretariat. She mentioned that China is prioritizing the extension of the CMEC to Sri Lanka.

During the meeting the President Wickremesinghe also noted that countries such as Sri Lanka, participants in the BRI, are prepared to embark on the second phase of the initiative, which is expected to make a more substantial economic contribution.

The CMEC is expected to connect Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port to China’s Yunnan province via Myanmar. For a long time, Yunnan has been recognized as one of the less developed regions in the southwest. However, since the BRI proposed, the local economic growth of Yunnan province has accelerated. Yunnan province is strategically positioned as a bridge to Southeast Asia and South Asia.

Chinese President Xi said on 19th January 2020, "Yunnan should take a more proactive role in serving the country's major development strategy and better integrate into the plan, and it should speed up the building of economic corridors with neighboring countries with further opening-up," right after he finished a two-day visit to Myanmar, during which China and Myanmar made "new and important" consensus on promoting high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.

Yunnan province currently has 20 plus dry ports near the China-Laos, China-Vietnam and China-Myanmar border sections, as well as 15 airports that operate the most Chinese air routes to south and southeast Asian destinations. Yunnan dry ports are expanding their international traffic and becoming business hubs and bringing common prosperity in tri-junction among China, ASEAN and South Asia.

Yunnan is also China's major gateway to South and Southeast Asia, and the Pan-Asian Railway Network, one of BRI's flagship transportation development projects in Southeast Asia, starts from Kunming, capital of Yunnan province. There are three routes on the network: the central route starts from Kunming, goes through Laos, and ends in Bangkok; the western route extends through Myanmar and Thailand; and the eastern route crosses Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. All three routes meet in Bangkok, with further links to Malaysia and Singapore. When completed, the network will connect seven Southeast Asian nations and draw them closer to the world's second-largest economy, China.

China’s vision to extend the CMEC to Sri Lanka is a unique opportunity for Sri Lanka to connect with China and ASEAN. And the maritime connectivity between Kyaukpyu port, located along the Bay of Bengal on the west tip of Myanmar and the Hambantota port, located on the southeastern coast of Sri Lanka, will stimulates development and economic activity of Sri Lanka, Myanmar and China’s Yunnan province and offer alternative route for China to avoid the Malacca Strait. 

Both Kyaukpyu and Hambantota ports are flagship projects under the BRI and China is already investing massively to promote regional integration. The Hambantota Port is well-positioned at a strategic location on the maritime gateway to South Asia and the Bay of Bengal. Generally, about 300 ships pass this route on a daily basis and create good business opportunities for refuelling, crew change, maintenance, logistics, and buying provisions and medical supplies.

Hambantota International Port (HIP) is Sri Lanka’s most diversified deep-water, multi-purpose port. It offers a comprehensive range of services for the shipping industry. The HIP is a joint venture between China Merchants Port Holdings (CMPort) and Sri Lanka port authority (SLPA) in a Public Private Partnership.

Recently, the Chinese state-owned oil and gas giant China Petrochemical Corporation also proposed to fully finance construction of a refinery in Hambantota port with 4 billion US dollars.

Sri Lanka has been an important stop on the maritime silk road since ancient times. The geographical location of Hambantota deep water port can offer a comparative advantage to CMEC for trade with various continents, and given its geographically unique position in the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka can play a key part in CMEC.

(The writer Maya Majueran currently serves as a Director of Belt and Road Initiative Sri Lanka, BRISL for short. It is an independent & pioneering Sri Lankan-led organization, with strong expertise in BRI advice and support. The views in the article are the writer's own, not necessarily those of Yunnan Gateway)