Nanning, September 9 (ZXS) -- What is the pioneering significance of the China-Vietnam Cross-border Tourism Cooperation Zone?

——Interview with Hu Chao, Dean and Professor of the School of Economics, Guangxi University for Nationalities

China News Agency reporter Huang Yanmei

China's first cross-border tourism cooperation zone, the Sino-Vietnamese Detian (Banyo) Waterfall Cross-border Tourism Cooperation Zone, launched trial operation on September 2023, 9. The cooperation zone is a project jointly built and implemented by Guangxi, China and Cao Binh, Vietnam after the signing of the Agreement between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on Cooperation in the Protection and Development of Dertien (Banyo) Waterfall Tourism Resources in 15.

What is the pioneering significance of the Sino-Vietnamese Detian (Banyo) Waterfall Cross-border Tourism Cooperation Zone Project? What are the positive and exemplary effects on China-Vietnam cooperation, especially China-ASEAN cooperation? What are the useful enlightenments for opening up and cooperation in China's border areas? Hu Chao, dean and professor of the School of Economics of Guangxi University for Nationalities, recently gave an exclusive interview to China News Agency's "East-West Question" for interpretation.

The following is a summary of the interview:

China News Agency: What is the pioneering significance of the Sino-Vietnamese Detian (Banyo) Waterfall Cross-border Tourism Cooperation Zone in China?

Hu Chao: Exploring the construction of cross-border tourism cooperation zones is an important part of China's high-level opening up and promoting the high-quality development of the "Belt and Road". As China's first cross-border tourism cooperation zone, the construction of China-Vietnam Detian (Banyo) Waterfall Cross-border Tourism Cooperation Zone is of pioneering significance, which is mainly reflected in:

The first is to integrate the cross-border tourism resources of the two countries and jointly develop them, becoming an important carrier of cross-border economic cooperation and cultural exchanges between China and Vietnam, and setting a model for promoting the "Belt and Road" cooperation initiative and building a community with a shared future for mankind.

Second, China's border areas are rich in tourism resources, and the China-Vietnam Detian (Banyo) Waterfall Cross-border Tourism Cooperation Zone has set a model for China and neighboring countries to jointly develop and utilize border resources under the principle of consultation, joint construction and sharing, and transform the value of border natural resources into economic value.

Third, Vietnam is China's largest trading partner among ASEAN member countries, and China is Vietnam's largest trading partner. The China-Vietnam Detian (Banyo) Waterfall Cross-border Tourism Cooperation Zone is not only conducive to the development and opening up of tourism in the border areas, but also conducive to further promoting the development of bilateral trade. It not only plays a positive role in developing the border economy and consolidating the prosperity and stability of the border areas, but also has great significance for the development of China's tourism industry, the opening up of the whole country to the outside world, and the development of international economic and trade cooperation.

Detian Transnational Waterfall. Photo by Song Hantao

China News Agency: The China-Vietnam Detian (Banyo) Waterfall Cross-border Tourism Cooperation Zone has opened up a new model of cross-border tourism cooperation, creating new opportunities and injecting new impetus into the cultural and tourism exchanges and cooperation and economic and trade development between China and Vietnam. What is the impact of the project on Sino-Vietnamese cooperation?

Hu Chao: China and Vietnam are neighbors linked by mountains and rivers, and they are also a community of common destiny of strategic significance. Over the years, under the joint promotion of the two countries and after friendly consultation, the China-Vietnam Detian (Banyo) Waterfall Cross-border Tourism Cooperation Zone has been successfully opened for trial operation. This is the result of the joint efforts of relevant departments of China and Vietnam to implement the 2022 Joint Statement on Further Strengthening and Deepening the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between China and Vietnam, which is not only the first cross-border tourism cooperation zone between China and Vietnam, but also a true portrayal of friendly exchanges between the two peoples.

The trial operation of the cross-border tourism cooperation zone will further strengthen and deepen the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between China and Vietnam, accelerate the construction of the China-Vietnam Economic Cooperation Zone, build a new pattern of mutual benefit and win-win results, and make the results of mutually beneficial cooperation more beneficial to the people of the two countries.

First, China and Vietnam will discuss and share border tourism resources, implement the concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind, and help deepen and promote extensive cooperation between China and Vietnam in other fields.

Second, the trial operation of the cross-border tourism cooperation zone has been launched, which has taken the traditional China-Vietnam border economic cooperation model a step forward and provided reference for the operation and implementation of other cross-border economic cooperation zone cooperation models between China and Vietnam.

Third, the trial operation of the cross-border tourism cooperation zone, the close exchange of tourists from the two countries, will greatly increase the opportunities for people-to-people exchanges, further deepen people-to-people exchanges, promote people-to-people bonds, carry forward traditional friendship, lay the foundation for smooth trade, and accelerate the construction of the China-Vietnam Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone.

On September 2023, 9, China's first cross-border tourism cooperation zone, the Sino-Vietnamese Detian (Banyo) Waterfall Cross-border Tourism Cooperation Zone, launched trial operation. The picture shows that on the same day, the first Chinese tourists lined up to leave the country. Photo by Liu Juncong

China News Agency: Exploring the construction of cross-border tourism cooperation zones is a brand-new attempt of bilateral cooperation between China and ASEAN countries, what positive impact will the project bring to deepening China-ASEAN cooperation?

Hu Chao: This year marks the 10th anniversary of building a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future and jointly building the Belt and Road Initiative, as well as the 20th anniversary of the China-ASEAN Expo and the China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit. After the "Golden Decade" and "Diamond Decade", China-ASEAN cooperation has achieved fruitful results and expanded the fields of cooperation. With the release of the dividends of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the construction of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area has been further advanced, the status of China and ASEAN as each other's largest trading partners has been further consolidated, and China and ASEAN have become important sources and destinations for each other's investment.

ASEAN countries are located at the intersection of land and sea of the "Belt and Road" and are key areas for high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road". In recent years, China and ASEAN countries have intensively promoted trade, investment, connectivity and regional cooperation, and successively built a number of landmark projects, jointly depicting the "brush stroke" of jointly building the "Belt and Road". This series of projects shows that the building of a China-ASEAN community with a shared future is taking root and bearing fruit. The construction of the "Belt and Road" has brought tangible benefits to the people of ASEAN countries, and the local people's awareness of the "Belt and Road" and their goodwill towards China have continued to increase, effectively promoting people-to-people ties between the two sides.

The trial operation of the China-Vietnam Detian (Banyo) Waterfall Cross-border Tourism Cooperation Zone provides a new high-level open platform for China-ASEAN cooperation, provides opportunities for bilateral countries to jointly develop and utilize cross-border resources, and creates a model of cross-border tourism and green tourism, which can produce positive demonstration effects, promote China-ASEAN cooperation to achieve greater results in a wider range of fields, and promote China-ASEAN cooperation to a new height.

During the trial operation of the cross-border tourism cooperation zone, the management mode of reservation grouping, limited group group, limited time cross-border, group entry and exit, and limited tour routes will be implemented. After the trial operation, under the guidance and support of the relevant departments of China and Vietnam, China Guangxi and Gao Binh of Vietnam will accumulate cooperation experience, improve infrastructure, enrich tourism forms, promote the early realization of formal operation of the cooperation zone, promote in-depth cooperation in the protection and utilization of cultural tourism resources in the border areas of the two regions, further promote the comprehensive economic and social development and all-round friendly exchanges between the two provinces, and contribute to the good-neighborly and friendly relations and comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries.

The cross-border tourism cooperation zone innovates in cooperation mechanisms and co-management models, and China and Vietnam discuss and share border tourism resources to promote common development. Drawing on this model, China could build similar cooperation zones in similar areas such as the China-Laos border.

On September 2023, 9, China's first cross-border tourism cooperation zone, the Sino-Vietnamese Detian (Banyo) Waterfall Cross-border Tourism Cooperation Zone, launched trial operation. The picture shows that on that day, tourists "checked in" on the Vietnamese side. Photo by Lin Xin

China News Agency: The construction and development of the China-Vietnam Cross-border Tourism Cooperation Zone is a new measure for China to promote the opening up and development of border areas.

Hu Chao: China has nearly 2,3 kilometers of land borders and land borders with 14 countries, and has rich land border tourism resources. Some of these tourism resources are jointly owned with neighbouring countries. In addition to the China-Vietnam Detian (Banyo) Waterfall Cross-border Tourism Cooperation Zone, the China-Vietnam Friendship Pass-Friendship Cross-border Tourism Cooperation Zone Puzhai Xinqing Pilot Zone is also advancing.

As a new carrier of border cross-border tourism and international tourism cooperation, the trial operation of the China-Vietnam Detian (Banyo) Waterfall Cross-border Tourism Cooperation Zone has been launched, indicating that as long as we dare to reform and innovate, do a good job in reform experiments, constantly sum up experience in construction mode, operation mechanism, management methods, etc., and dare to explore the way for broader cross-border tourism cooperation, we can show greater achievements in promoting the high-quality development of border ethnic areas and make greater breakthroughs in serving and integrating into the new development pattern.

On July 2021, 7, 11,<> runners experienced the "Red Border Pass Climbing High and Looking Joy Run" activity at the Sino-Vietnamese Detian-Banyo Waterfall Cross-border Tourism Cooperation Zone. Photo by Li Chan

China News Agency: Guangxi is the frontier and window of China's opening up and cooperation with ASEAN, will the China-Vietnam Detian (Banyo) Waterfall Cross-border Tourism Cooperation Zone become a new business card for China's tourism?

Hu Chao: Located in the upper reaches of the Guichun River on the border between China and Vietnam, Detian Waterfall in Daxin County, Chongzuo City, Guangxi, is connected to the adjacent Banyo Waterfall in Vietnam, and is the first transnational waterfall in Asia and the fourth largest in the world. Detian (Banyo) Waterfall spans the two countries, is about 200 meters wide, more than 60 meters deep, and has a drop of more than 70 meters. The peculiar karst landscape and natural landscape scenery complement each other, and it is known as the "Hundred Miles Landscape Gallery" on the Sino-Vietnamese border.

Tourists take a photo at the Detian Waterfall Scenic Area in Daxin County, Chongzuo City, Guangxi. Photo by Huang Yanmei

Detian Waterfall is majestic, Banyo Waterfall is beautiful, but for a long time, because the waterfall spans the two countries, in the absence of an effective cooperation mechanism, the resources of Detian (Banyo) Waterfall have not been fully and effectively developed, and its beautiful and spectacular panorama is "raised in purdah".

In recent years, with the increase in the income level of residents in bilateral countries, the demand for non-material consumption such as tourism has been increasing. Where is the fun, where to go? Become the focus of people's tourism consumption. In this context, China and Vietnam have vigorously promoted cross-border tourism cooperation. At present, Detian Transnational Waterfall Scenic Area has been awarded the national 5A tourist scenic spot. The scenic spot integrates many natural and cultural landscapes, and launches Asia's first immersive transnational night banquet "Wonderful Night Detian" and other projects to enrich and compensate for the leisure and vacation product format of Detian tourist destination. The scenic spot has become a popular check-in place for many tourists in the southern frontier karst network, and also attracted many film and television dramas to shoot in this scene.

China and Vietnam will work together to build a border customs tourism belt, which will build a new pattern of cross-border tourism cooperation between China and Vietnam, fully release the charm of border customs and cross-border tourism attractiveness, and better meet people's growing demand for tourism consumption. (End)

Respondent Profile:

Hu Chao, Dean of School of Economics, Guangxi University for Nationalities, Ph.D. in Economics, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor. Mainly engaged in international trade, international regional economic cooperation, international business cases and other research, presided over 4 national projects, more than 10 provincial and ministerial projects, published 4 academic works, edited 1 book, published more than 30 papers in CSSCI and core journals such as "Ethnic Studies" and "International Trade Issues".