Yining Border Economic Cooperative Zone

Located in Yining city of Ili Kazak autonomous prefecture, the State-level Border Economic Cooperative Zone of Yining was officially approved by the State Council in 1992 with a planned land area of 100 square kilometers. It is the nation’s first border economic cooperative zone to pass the ISO14001 environmental management system.

The zone boasts the irreplaceable geographic advantages of Yining and the unique resources of the Ili river valley. It has set up three development strategies to focus on the environment and industry as well as commerce and trade. Led by three major industrial sectors -- industry, commercial logistics and real estate -- the city has developed a variety of industries including building materials, textiles, processing of agricultural by-products, bio-medicine, machinery manufacturing, furniture and home appliances. It has planned a 10-square-kilometer ceramic production base, a 40-square-kilometer export processing park and a 30-square-kilometer international logistic park.

The zone recorded a gross domestic product of 3.95 billion yuan ($0.58 billion) in 2018, up 8.3 percent from a year before. The fixed assets investment totaled 3.61 billion yuan. The industrial output increased by 8.1 percent year-on-year to 3.4 billion yuan while the export and import volume rose 70 percent to $170 million. Local financial revenue amounted to 590 million yuan and some 3.5 billion yuan investment was in place in 2018.

The zone plans to invest 731 million yuan into 23 government fixed assets in 2019to be used for road construction, greenery, water supply and sewerage to further improve infrastructure. The fixed assets investment from the companies is expected to reach 4.1 billion yuan in 48 projects, which will be used in real estate, commerce and trade and industries.