西南民族地区融入南向“一带一路”经济走廊的现状、挑战及对策建议

Ethnic Areas in Southwest China Joining the Southern Belt and Road Economic Corridors:Status Quo,Challenges,and Suggestions

随着“一带一路”建设的推进,我国民族地区通过对外开放促进经济社会发展变得越来越重要。云南、四川、广西、贵州、重庆、西藏等西南地区是我国少数民族较为集中的区域,同时地理区位上具有面向南亚、东南亚开放的优势,因而研究西南民族地区融入南向“一带一路”经济走廊、促进其经济社会发展成为一个重要方向。本文基于上述西南六个地区(省、自治区、直辖市)的经贸数据,分析了西南民族地区对外贸易的国别结构、商品结构和方式结构,并通过构建贸易引力模型分析了西南民族地区南向开放的特征及其合作潜力,指出了其面临的主要风险,并建议通过加强基础设施对外联通、加大特色商品出口和旅游产品开发、提升经济便利化程度,加快融入南向“一带一路”经济走廊。

The implementation of the Belt and Road initiative and the development of six international economic cooperation corridors seem to have brought economic prosperity to ethnic areas in China.Arguably it becomes more and more important for ethnic minority areas to promote economic and social development by opening up to the world.Southwest China is a relatively concentrated area of ethnic minorities,and it has the advantage of being relatively close to both South Asia and Southeast Asia.In the light of Classical economics,Marxist political economy,and Modern Western economics,this paper holds that the main goal of integrating China s ethnic minority areas into the“One Belt and One Road Economic Corridors”is to effectively boost economic growth.It is conceivably a must to take advantage of the areas resources to take part in the international exchange of labor,resolve the“center-periphery”dilemma,and further support the construction of“a community with a shared future for mankind.”This paper attempts to analyze the regional structure,industrial structure,commodity structure,and structure of foreign trade of ethnic areas in Southwest China.This study also tries to explore the characteristics and cooperation potential of“Opening Up”in southwestern ethnic areas by constructing a gravity model of trade.The conclusions of the model shows that:The expansion of economic scale leads to greater market demand and stronger supply capacity,which in addition stimulates economic and trade cooperation in southwestern ethnic areas.However,long-distance freight will significantly increase transportation time and cost and reduce the profit margin of foreign trade in southwestern ethnic areas.At the same time,a freer,better,and more advantageous trade environment will arguably benefit foreign trade and economic cooperation in southwestern ethnic regions.According to the analysis,we find that southwestern ethnic areas are facing some problems in“Opening Up:”1)Foreign trade and cooperation in southwestern ethnic peoples areas still have problems like e.g.a too small scale,unreasonable structure,and an insignificant trade volume;2)The infrastructure connectivity of southwestern ethnic areas with the outside world seems to be insufficient;3)Isolationism,unilateralism,protectionism,and other anti-globalization trends challenge the opening-up of southwestern ethnic areas;4)The business environment in Southwest China needs to be improved.Faced with these problems,this paper suggests that the southwestern ethnic regions should bolster foreign trade with South Asia and Southeast Asia by strengthening infrastructure,increasing the export of special commodities,developing tourism,enhancing the degree of economic facilitation,and accelerating the integration into the Southern Belt and Road Economic Corridors.