Liu Fangmin, reputed as the "King of Shoes" in western China, has enlarged his sales market to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) recently thanks to the opening of the new route.

"The newly-built Neijiang-Kunming Railway and the outlet to the sea in southwestern China have become the shortcut for my shoes to be transported to Southeast Asia," said Liu.

The 872-kilometer Neijiang-Kunming Rail Line connects west China's Sichuan Province to southwestern Yunnan Province. It is a key route linking Guizhou and Sichuan provinces, Chongqing Municipality and the capital city of Kunming in Yunnan Province.

Meanwhile, the newly-built highway to the sea in southwest China is more than 1,700 km long. Beginning in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province and ending in the coastal city of Beihai in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the new route has cut the formerly one-week journey to about 20 hours.

The road and railway construction, too, has facilitated transport from west China to the Mekong Delta.

"It costs much less now to ship my products from the city of Neijiang to southeast Asia," said Liu, whose factory sells more than one million pairs of shoes to Vietnam every year. In the past, Liu said, the traditional route to Southeast Asia was through Shanghai, which is much more expensive.

The area along the upper reaches of the Yangtze has 12 big and medium-sized cities, including Chengdu, Chongqing and Mianyang, with a total population of 60 million. It is an area of utmost importance for trade between China and ASEAN.

The volume of bilateral trade between China and ASEAN rose sharply in recent years. But most of the increase goes to the developed areas of the Yangtze and Pearl River deltas and the trade between west China and ASEAN still needs to be further developed.

The export volume of Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality to the ASEAN was respectively US$345 million and US$336 million last year, much less than the export volume of Shanghai to the region in the first half of 2002 alone, which stood at US$1.346 billion.

To set up a free trade area between China and ASEAN would benefit both western China and the Mekong River area, said Li Hong, an expert on Southeast Asia affairs in Guangxi University.

(Xinhua News Agency April 17, 2003)