According to the news, Myanmar¡¯s Vice President, Minyon Leigh, will attend the 47th ASEAN Summit held in Kuala Lumpur from 26 to 28 October.

Four years ago, ASEAN believed that Myanmar had ¡°lackened progress¡± in implementing the Five Points Consensus and banned Myanmar¡¯s political leaders from attending high-level meetings such as the ASEAN Summit and the Foreign Ministers¡¯ Conference.

Myanmar is ¡°good.¡±

In recent years, Myanmar has been in an awkward position internationally due to its domestic situation, but domestic high-level officials have been actively repairing Myanmar's international relations.

This year, on September 8th, Minonley led the delegation to the SCO Summit and visited China; in September, Minonley travelled to Russia for a working visit, and Prime Minister Wu Newso led the delegation to the 22nd China-ASEAN Expo and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit; in October, Malaysian Foreign Minister and ASEAN Roundup President Mohammed Hassan visited Myanmar to meet with Minonley.

At the same time, at the beginning of September, Myanmar has also continued to carry out cleansing operations along the Myanmar border, carrying out raids on the famous KKK park.

A series of developments all reveal its domestic desire for stability. Of course, as the situation in Myanmar stabilizes, Yunnan is probably the first to gain development opportunities.

A strategic key.

On the map of Southeast Asia, the presence of Myanmar is difficult to ignore.It covers an area of 67,6 million square kilometers and is the largest land country on the entire Central Southern Peninsula, with a population of about 55 million.

In 2024, Myanmar's total GDP will record US$63.14 billion, which is only higher than that of Cambodia, Laos and Brunei among the ten ASEAN countries; the per capita GDP is US$1159, which belongs to a low-and middle-income country, but its geography and resources give it strategic value beyond its size.

Its territory is like a key, bordering China in the north, the Indian Ocean in the west, Thailand and Laos in the east, and India in the northwest. Anyone who wants to enter the hinterland of Indo-China Peninsula or get out of the passage between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean can't get around Myanmar.

This "key" opens a veritable "treasure house of resources". Myanmar is one of the countries with the largest natural gas reserves in Southeast Asia, with proven reserves of about 340 billion cubic meters.It is also a world-famous producing area of jade, rubies, wood and agricultural products. Oil and gas fields, copper mines, and rare metals have always been the focus of foreign investment.

In 2024, the added value of Myanmar's agriculture, industry and service industries will account for 20.8%, 37.8% and 41.4% of total GDP respectively, showing huge development and consumption potential.

For this reason, this strategic key, embedded in gold and emerald, provides a wide space for its partners to create value together.The countries that can establish a strong partnership with Myanmar will have the opportunity to share a huge opportunity for regional economic development.

three-way comparison

Yunnan is located at the border of China and Myanmar. For the development of Myanmar, the world looks at China and China looks at Yunnan.

However, when looking at the exchanges between Yunnan and Myanmar, we might as well open our eyes and take a look at the exchanges between Yunnan and Vietnam and Yunnan and Laos, which are also at the border.

First of all, look at the ¡°sensation¡± of the book.

The Burma trade has the thickest chassis. The trade volume between Yunnan and Myanmar has long ranked first in Yunnan's foreign trade. In the first half of 2025, the trade volume between Yunnan and Myanmar reached 24.09 billion yuan, a drop of about 10%, but it still accounted for one-third of the total bilateral trade between China and Myanmar.

During the same period, Yunnan's import and exports to Vietnam amounted to 96.2 billion yuan, which decreased by 3.2%; and the import and exports to Laos amounted to 109.9 billion yuan, which increased by 17.5%.

The growth rates of Vietnam and Laos are stable, but there is still a significant gap between their volume and Myanmar.

Look at the ¡°flow¡± sensation.

Among the 28 open ports in Yunnan province, Ruili, Qingshuihe and Houqiao in Myanmar have been in the busiest positions for a long time.

In the first half of 2025, a total of 277,9 million inspections of entry and entry personnel were carried out, an increase of approximately 4.47%, 29.2 thousand vehicles of entry and exit transportation, 158.5 thousand tons of various kinds of goods, goods and goods, which can be called the "engine" of the border with China and Myanmar.

In recent years, the port of the river has risen rapidly, with the cumulative volume of imports and exports of goods of 88,4 thousand tons, an increase of 46.6% compared to the same year; the trade volume broke through 23.5 billion yuan, an increase of 80.7% compared to the same year.

The import and export freight volume at the port (channel) also reached 61.1 thousand tons, with a freight value of 29.4 billion yuan.

In contrast, at the estuary port with a larger direction in Vietnam, there were 3.025 million inbound and outbound people and 1.919 million tons of imported and exported goods in the first half of 2025, a year-on-year increase of 19% and 10% respectively.

In the direction of Laos, from January to July 2025, the total volume of imported and exported goods at Mohan Port via the China-Laos Railway exceeded 3.43 million tons, and the value of goods exceeded 15.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of over 6% and 41% respectively. Up to now, the number of inbound and outbound passengers has exceeded 2 million.

In terms of data, the combined traffic of Myanmar ports is still significantly leading.

Look at the final sense of strategy.

The import side is mainly tropical fruits and Chinese medicinal materials such as granite, firewood, lily, etc., Yunnan in the first quarter of this year has increased the import of agricultural products from Vietnam by 35.5%, the import of Chinese medicinal materials by 4929 tons; the export side is aluminum, some electrical and a "stable combination" of agricultural products such as fruits and nuts.

Looking at Laos again, the keyword in Laos is "train carrying goods". The import side is mainly metallic ore, rubber and tropical fruits such as durian and mangosteen from Thailand and other countries. The export side is mainly electromechanical, daily chemical supplies, etc., with the main focus. Fast forward and fast out.

Relying on the old railway, the mill became the country's largest granite land import port, and the national granite concentration center in Kunming (Muling) will be officially operated, and it will be faster.

It can be said that Yunnan is a complementary market and stable; Yunnan is always a transit passage, quick. Myanmar's strategic hinterland is stable and fast.

Stability is the foundation of Yunnan and Myanmar strategy. With the huge freight volume, Myanmar has long imported wood, ore, gemstones, etc., while medium and heavy rare earths account for a relatively high proportion, providing Yunnan with nearby supply opportunities for rare earth separation, magnetic material processing and new energy parts. The oil and gas pipeline in Yunnan and Myanmar remains an important channel for energy security in southwest China. Millions of tons of crude oil and natural gas are transported into Yunnan from Kyaukpyu every year, providing continuous energy security for Yunnan and even the whole country.

Fast is the rapid advancement of the channel. During his visit to China, Min Aung Hlaing said that efforts were being made to implement the Mandalay-Muse railway project, which is crucial to the trade between Myanmar and China, as soon as possible. Once the border section is connected with the trunk line in Myanmar, Yunnan will have the physical conditions of "railway reaching the Indian Ocean" for the first time, which is equivalent to having its own direct outlet to the sea. This will be a "change to the logistics, energy and foreign trade pattern of the vast hinterland of Chengdu, Chongqing, Yunnan and Tibet. Track-level" change.

To sum up-for Vietnam, trade in fruits, vegetables and light industry is a stable cash flow, but it is more like symmetrical bilateral trade and lacks leverage to change the pattern; for the old direction,"fast" is the ultimate, but Laos is a landlocked country. Countries are essentially a "transit economy."

Only in the direction of Myanmar, the volume of trade is large, the port is strong, the commodity structure is diverse, and it is the only strategic channel directly to the Indian Ocean.

Six prefectures (cities) are deployed

Along the Yunnan-Myanmar border line, the six towns are sorted as a "long serpent line": Angi, Phu Shaan, Dhoon, Qian, Phu, and West Duo Phan.

This is Yunnan against Myanmar's "frontier six chess". but can the game come out of the situation, the key is in various towns to be able to recognize their strengths and enlarge the advantage.

Let's first look at Dehong. Ruili Border Industrial Park has formed a "4+3" industrial system-mainly textiles and garments, communications electronics, import processing, equipment manufacturing, supporting bonded business, cross-border business, and modern logistics. As of the end of 2024, there were 582 enterprises in the park and 167 enterprises transferred to the east and central regions. In addition, this year Dehong (Ruili) also entered the list of new national backbone cold chain logistics bases.

Riley's current approach is to integrate "import and export + warehouse distribution + processing".In the future, it is still necessary to take advantage of the policy advantages of the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive experimental area to facilitate the entire process.

Second, the resources are not in the mineral, but in the "organizational capacity". its "Burma, China, Myanmar, Indian Ocean New Canal Construction 2025 key task division program to promote the port, park, line, financial one borrowing; the integrated service platform of the Qingdao River port has been launched, the "trade - logistics - finance - government" four business units in one interface, overlap the 9710 regulatory system and the "international water-free port" of Qingdao River preparation, greatly reduce the cost of cross-border trial.

Lincang's "label" is to organize scattered sources of goods and scattered enterprises into stable routes and trains.

Again, there is no size like the size of De Hoon, but the policy code of the Monkey Bridge port is also hard enough, has the qualification of imported food and fruit designated regulatory site, and has achieved the "two combined one" (generic trade and border people's intermarket) regulatory model trial operation.

From January to May 2025, the trade volume of Baoshan border residents' mutual trade reached 778 million yuan, and the output value of on-site processing was 353 million yuan, reflecting the effectiveness of the "overseas planting + border residents' mutual trade + on-site processing" model.

Pusan's strategic position lies in the value of its westward channel, and in the link with the development of logistics nodes such as Burma's Guangzhou, Mishin, forming a focal service network of 150 kilometers along the western township and China-Myanmar economic corridor, this geographic advantage allows Pusan to focus on the field of "importation of Myanmar's resources and processing + shipping to the west", becoming a professional industrial organizer.

Pu'er again. Pu'er is strong in agricultural and forestry resources and processing, and it is close to the Myanmar border mutual market. It is a provincial-level coffee foreign trade transformation and upgrading base. Coffee and forestry products (rosin, etc.) have grown significantly to sea, and the mutual market has made a model of electronic settlement and sugarcane processing.

It is proposed to consolidate the order-driven chain of "Burma-Burma-Burma-Burma" into an annual collateral agreement + financial collateral, to hedge raw materials and exchange rate fluctuations.

Once again, Xishuangbanna. Banna's endowment is cultural tourism and consumption, and the government has set "cultural tourism + all industries" as the main line. On the opposite side of Myanmar, Banna is not focusing on bulk products. It can consider relying on people to select products to bring traffic, and building the Daluo-Menghai line into a cross-border buyers + regional live broadcast selection center. The front end will undertake light industry and agricultural products from northern Myanmar/Shan State, and the back end will feed back the processing and warehouse distribution of Dehong and Lincang, forming a closed loop of "people-selection-order-supply".

There is also the Zhejiang River. Zhejiang River is limited in short-term shipments, but it is irreplaceable on clean energy and boundary river canals. The "14th Five-Year" waterway plan of the province is included in the reserve of projects such as the construction of the Zhejiang River and the Zhejiang River boundary river canals.

Cross-border hydropower complementarity and power transmission are long-term cooperation that can be deepened between the Nujiang River and northern Myanmar (Kachin).

Although it seems that Ruili may be the most directly recipient of the dividends of the China-Myanmar railway, on the whole, it has unique skills for all states and cities in Myanmar.

borrowed mirror.

Speaking of the international situation in Yunnan Town, it seems that it has steadily won, but putting Yunnan and Guangxi on a table, the gap will wake people up.

Let's look at two sets of data first.

In the first half of 2025, Yunnan and the three countries of Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam's import and exports totaled approximately 450 billion yuan; but in the same period, Guangxi completed 150 billion yuan for one country of Vietnam, the mass gap is more than three times.

Guangzhou Free Trade Pilot Zone was founded in the past six years, with more than 120,000 enterprises established, the actual use of foreign capital increased by 24.3 per cent, the annual average of foreign trade imports and exports increased by 16.1 per cent. With the area of five thousand, the entire region contributed to the actual use of foreign capital by 42 per cent and the foreign trade imports and exports by 39.6 per cent.

According to the Yunnan Pilot Free Trade Zone, as of August 2024, 127,100 new enterprises have been established and a foreign trade value of 377.210 billion yuan has been completed, contributing 23.2% of the province's actual use of foreign investment and 26.4% of the foreign trade import and export volume.

On this indicator, Yunnan also has room for improvement.

First, it is no problem to put Yunnan and Guangxi together, the two countries' foreign trade entities are ASEAN. In the first half of 2025, Yunnan and Guangxi represented 48.5% and 53.2% of ASEAN's foreign trade volume respectively.

Therefore, opening up to the outside is not really ¡°who neighbors more who is stronger¡±.

There are about three experiences in Guangxi.

The first is to "make the system into production capacity". in the free trade pilot zone, the customs model of "a declaration once inspection" will double the transit speed of goods; cross-border RMB settlement will be facilitated, so that enterprises will have less running legs and less payroll; "certificate separation, ultra-simple approval" will allow foreign and private enterprises to package into the park and start production in the year.

Policies not only stop on the sign, but sink into the enterprise and into the chain.

Guangxi's exports to ASEAN, electronic information and mechanical and electrical electronics have been the main force, in the five months before 2025, mechanical and electrical exports 1156 billion yuan, the same ratio increased by 30%, lithium batteries are also close to tripling; imported goods and agricultural products have linked Vietnam - Southeast Asia's processing base, forming a stable division of labor "middle goods - assembly - re-export".

The supporting cross-border e-commerce growth rate is good. The import and export of Guangxi cross-border e-commerce platform is 25.76 billion yuan, an increase of 145.9%.

Private enterprises have long accounted for about 70 percent of Guangzhou's imports and exports to ASEAN, border trade, processing, taxation, cross-border e-commerce in several ways structural balance, each link on the chain has enterprises running, therefore resistance to volatility and order reception is sufficient.

Yunnan to pursue, the key is to transform the "for-Burma advantage" into three types of ground-based grip.

Supplementing the chain is to transform Myanmar's resources into Yunnan's industries.

Yunnan is not without action. the Free Trade Pilot Zone is also undertaking "to undertake the transfer of industry", Pusan is also promoting the construction of the Myanmar Industrial Park, and even proposed the construction of high-standard factories and supporting facilities to facilitate the entry of Chinese-owned enterprises.

But the problem is that the value of the intermediate link between "in" and "out" has not been completely left. In the next step, Yunnan can consider setting up a batch of "priority lists of intermediate products" to form a closed loop of "Myanmar raw materials-processing in central Yunnan-complete sets in Chengdu and Chongqing-re-export" around rare earths, ore sands, wood, agricultural and forestry products, etc., and the processing chain will really stay in Yunnan.

Strengthening the main body is to allow more companies to dare to venture.

Yunnan's cross-border e-commerce has not been running slowly in the past two years, and all kinds of supervision modes are basically fully covered. More than 100 e-commerce companies and customs declaration enterprises have settled in the free trade zone.

However, compared with Guangxi, the penetration rate of private enterprises in Yunnan into Myanmar and Laos is still low. Many small and medium-sized enterprises dare not cross borders or will not cross borders. The solution is not complicated. Encourage private enterprises at the border to do e-commerce and supply chains to reduce trial and error costs; build a standardized service platform to allow warehousing, packaging, and testing to be "carried out" and lower the threshold.

The excellent system is to let the policy really fall into the corporate account book.

Yunnan Free Trade Zone has done a lot of exploration, customs facilitation, two-step declaration, credit system construction, are pushing, but with the frequent policy contrast of Guangxi, the space for progress is still great.

After all, what enterprises care most about is not whether there is a new policy, but whether it can be used and whether it is easy to use.

Guangxi's approach is still worth studying, clarifying the "customs time commitment standard", so that enterprises know how many hours can be released; promote inspection and detection and mutual recognition with neighboring countries, so that the certification process is truly shortened; and even set up a "system experience center", so that enterprises can first use, feedback, and promote.

Yunnan can fully draw on it, and quickly replicate the institutional innovation of the Free Trade Zone to the ports of Reli, Qingdao River, Monkey Bridge and other ports, so that the rules become the bottom of what enterprises dare to do.

The future competition of China's southbound road is not only the port access and the volume of trade, but also the excellence of system, the depth of industry and the toughness of cooperation.

Whether Yunnan can turn to the sea, the key is here.

(Source: Micron ¡°Embrace the Indian Ocean¡±)