Great leap forward

KUNMING – Once upon a time, in a land that now seems so far, far away, one of our editors boarded a local carrier in China. After he had settled into his seat, he and another journalist were unceremoniously taken off the flight, to give way to members of the People’s Liberation Army.

Since then it became a standing joke in our office that if you fly on a Chinese carrier, you have to be prepared for standing room only, first come, first served.

The unsavory impression lingers for those who haven’t visited China in recent years. One of them, upon learning that I was taking China Southern Airlines to this city, warned me it would be a noisy and uncomfortable flight.

In fact China Southern, which has gobbled up several of the local Chinese carriers, is now Asia’s largest carrier and, since its establishment only in July 1988, has become one of the biggest and most successful airlines in the world.

Yesterday it inaugurated its first direct flight from its southern hub in Guangzhou to Amsterdam - possibly why China Southern has been voted the year’s “most promising airline” by the Netherlands’ Schiphol International Airport. Tomorrow the first direct flight from the Chinese mainland to Georgia, from Urumqi in Xinjiang to Tbilisi, will be inaugurated. On the 15th, the airline will launch direct flights from Guangzhou’s Baiyun International Airport to Vancouver.

What happened to Asia’s first airline? Philippine Airlines, older than China Southern by about half a century, has cut back on direct flights, reduced destinations, and is trying unsuccessfully to downsize to survive.

In many ways the progress of a country’s carriers as well as the state of its premier port of entry reflect the state of the nation.

Baiyun International makes me green with envy - although these days, with even Baghdad having a much more spacious and modern airport than Manila, there are few international airports that won’t make me envious. Baiyun International, China’s third largest after the ones in Beijing and Shanghai Pudong, is positioning itself as a regional hub that can compete with neighboring countries.

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It’s a flight of over two hours from Baiyun to Kunming. This city, founded 1,240 years ago, is China’s fourth largest, but even city officials admit that they have fallen behind Beijing and Shanghai in terms of development.

Kunming is aggressively moving to catch up. Within the year Kunming International Airport will be inaugurated, becoming the fourth largest in China. As in Shanghai, which developed Pudong, a “New Kunming” is rising quickly, with special focus on being green. Within the old enclave you can tell the new development from the numerous patches of greenery and wide avenues with tree-lined bike lanes.

Playing catch-up with China’s top cities also means there’s enormous opportunity for growth in Kunming and the rest of Yunnan. And local officials are urging the world to take a look at the province and participate in that growth. They are also promoting greater Yunnan trade particularly with neighboring regions, positioning the southwestern province as an “economic bridgehead” between China and South and Southeast Asia. Yunnan is even encouraging investments from Taiwan.

Yesterday the 19th import-export fair between Yunnan and its neighbors particularly South and Southeast Asia ended. The two-day fair in this city featured large sections featuring Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, with smaller sections for Indonesia, Laos and Malaysia. I didn’t see a Philippine section.

Our businessmen might want to join those from other countries in looking at investment opportunities here. Kunming and the rest of Yunnan want infrastructure construction, energy and advertising industry development, manufacturing and high-tech industrial enterprises.

At a “press conference” here with Asian and local media the other day, Yunnan officials described their thrust as the “great leap forward development” and “opening up” of southwest China.

I put press conference in quotes because it was mainly an hour of Yunnan officials reading prepared speeches in Mandarin, with the media given prepared copies of English translations. There was no post-speech Q&A, although one official couldn’t get away from an ambush interview by TV journalists who needed video footage in English.

Yunnan still has to work on English proficiency. It’s rare to find English translations in public signage. I conversed with shopkeepers by calculator and sign language. If you want fresh cherries from a cart, where there’s no weighing scale or calculator, you have to pick the amount you want and let the vendor get the money from your purse.

But locals are learning quickly, and glad to help translate (or try to, anyway) for English speakers. At the expo when I haggled for a special tea from another province, a woman told me it was the first time she had attempted to translate - which was probably why I ended up paying about three times more than the price in the regular market for tea of comparable quality.

Poor English proficiency can be overlooked by foreign investors who are being promised “all preferential conditions” in Yunnan that are offered by five neighboring Chinese provinces, autonomous regions and major cities. Yunnan officials have committed - in an official document - to protect investor interests and solve problems “according to international practices.”

Incentives include tax breaks and refunds, priority in land utilization for certain projects, ease in registering foreign businesses, special residence permits and long-term multiple-entry visas (with home delivery) for investors and their spouses and children, free rental for standard plants in the 119 industrial parks, plus two exemptions and one subsidy for certain enterprises.

Also, Yunnan offers one incentive that the Philippines cannot offer (which is one of the biggest complaints of foreign investors in our country) – 100 percent foreign ownership of their businesses here. It’s been like that for many years now, according to Du Yong, the English-speaking director general of Yunnan’s Investment Promotion and Cooperation Bureau. The chief promoter is no charmer; he growled this answer to a question I managed to toss to him during the ambush chat. But this was probably because he could not imagine a country where foreigners are asked to plunk in a huge amount of money and then limited to 40 percent ownership of their enterprise.

“Yunnan is a hot spot waiting for development,” read a translation of the speech of Zhou Chi, deputy director of the provincial Industry and Information Commission. “Invest in Yunnan, settle in Yunnan.”

When the Chinese say they’re open for business, they mean it.