Yanbian Prefecture, China

Multilingual street sign in Hunchun, China - a city at the heart of Northeast Asian economic cooperation

Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in Jilin Province, Northeast China, covers an area of 42,700 km². Yanbian, with a population of 2.2 million, became one of China's first national minority autonomous areas in 1952. Ethnic Koreans account for approximately half the population, ensuring close ties with the Korean peninsula. Other minorities, including Hui Muslims and Manchu, constitute about 3% of the Prefecture's population, and the rest is Han Chinese. Jilin Province as a whole has a population of approximately 26 million. 

Yanbian's urbanisation rate of 78% is high by Chinese standards, reflecting the area's relatively high level of industrialisation. Yanji, the prefectural capital, has a population of 340,000 and Hunchun City a population of over 200,000. Hunchun is located 70 km from the sea, close to both the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the Russian Federation. 

Yanbian is well suited to a range of seasonal crops, livestock and forestry. Average annual rainfall is 400-650 mm. Agriculture is rice-based, but maize, soybean, tobacco, flax and fruits are also important. Following agricultural reforms in the 1990s, Yanbian has become a surplus area of grain and other food, consistently producing over 600,000 tonnes of grain annually in recent years. 78% of the land mass is forested, mostly with pine, Changbai larch, ash, linden and birch. Animal husbandry, particularly the pork and poultry industries, has grown rapidly in recent years. Yanbian specialises in high value farming, such as fur (marten), frogs, mushrooms, and mountain herbs. The area is China's principal producer of ginseng and other traditional Chinese and Korean medicine products. 

Yanbian Prefecture is rich in natural resources such as gold, lead, zinc, copper, manganese, molybdenum and lignite (brown coal), of which there are verifiable reserves of 1.2 billion tonnes near Hunchun. Minerals include petroleum, limestone, marble, silica sand, graphite, quartz, mica, rock crystal and volcanic rock. Hydropower resources are significant because of the rivers that flow north from the Changbai/Paekdu mountain chain on the China-DPRK border. Yanbian produces a surplus of coal fired electricity which it exports to other parts of Jilin Province.

Landlocked Jilin Province has good road and rail connections with the rest of China, and the links between Yanbian Prefecture and the ports of DPRK and the Russian Far East are being strengthened. During the past decade, the Chinese government has spent over US$ 1 billion on infrastructure in the Tumen Region, mainly on upgrading the links between Hunchun and Changchun, the provincial capital. Over the next few years, Jilin provincial government will invest a further US$ 6 billion in transport in the province. The Chinese and Russian rail networks have recently been connected in the Tumen River Area by a link between Hunchun and Kraskino, and there are now multimodal transport services connecting Hunchun with Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) via ports in Primorsky Territory (Russia). 

Economy

Yanbian Prefecture's GDP growth was 9.5% in 2001 (US$ 1.7 billion).  ROK was the source of nearly 60% of foreign direct investment in the same period, mostly in manufacturing.  The area's main industries are forest products, pulp and paper, coal mining, food processing, textiles and garments, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and tobacco products.

Yanbian's trade turnover was US$ 307 million in 2001, reflecting the Prefecture's close ties with the rest of China, although Yanbian has a more developed export sector than Jilin Province as a whole. The Prefecture benefits from having few large and inefficient state owned enterprises, and has been successful in attracting foreign direct investment. Over half of Yanbian's exports are generated from joint venture companies.

Hunchun Border Economic Cooperation Zone

Hunchun is located in the heart of China's Tumen River Area, and is the second largest urban centre in Yanbian after Yanji. Because of its strategic location near the Russian and DPRK borders, Hunchun was given "Border City" status in 1992, enabling it to offer preferential investment and foreign trade incentives. Since 1993, Hunchun has become the largest and most successful border economic cooperation zone in Northeast China. Between 1995 and 2000, the average GDP growth rate for Hunchun was 11.5%, considerably higher than the national average. In 2000, Hunchun's GDP growth rate was 12.8%.

Building on its geographical advantages, recently completed infrastructure projects and low manufacturing costs, the Hunchun Border Economic Cooperation Zone has become a focal point for transit trade business to and from Asia-Pacific markets. Hunchun also benefits from foreign investment in manufacturing and tourism. The Zone has attracted several large-scale industries, especially from ROK, as well as many smaller light industries and bonded warehouse activities. The contractual value of foreign investment in Hunchun has reached US$ 148 million, with a realised value of US$ 90 million.

In May 2001, the Hunchun Export Processing Zoned in the vicinity of the Border Economic Cooperation Zone. The Zone, which has bonded warehouse facilities and special customs services, offers a range of preferential policies for investors.