The traffic flow at the ports is endless, cross-border freight is effectively cleared, and relying on the golden channel of the China Laos railway and the upgrading dividend of the smart ports, the bilateral economic and trade exchanges between Yunnan and Laos continue to be hot. The latest foreign trade data shows that in the first four months of 2026, Yunnan's import and export trade volume with Laos successfully exceeded 10 billion yuan, with a trade growth rate of nearly 50%, firmly ranking as the largest province in China's trade with Laos, and bilateral economic and trade cooperation has reached a new level.

The scale of trade is increasing

From January to April 2026, the total value of import and export trade between Yunnan Province and Laos reached 10.4 billion yuan, a significant increase of 49.7% year-on-year. This trade accounted for 37.5% of the total trade volume between China and Laos, firmly maintaining China's position as the largest province in trade with Laos. Relying on the continuously upgraded smart port system, the efficiency of regional cross-border logistics has steadily increased, laying a solid foundation for efficient logistics for commercial exchanges and cross-border industrial investment between the two regions.

Yunnan is geographically adjacent to Laos and serves as the forefront gateway for China's opening-up and economic and trade exchanges with Laos. 2026 is a good year for China Laos friendship, and also a key node for the fifth anniversary of the opening of China Laos railway. Since the opening of the railway, the total value of import and export goods of the China Laos railway has exceeded 80 billion yuan, driving the overall foreign trade growth of Yunnan to 25%, and becoming the core driving force for the leap forward growth of bilateral trade between Yunnan and Laos.

Accelerate cross-border freight transportation

In response to industry pain points such as the complexity of cross-border freight categories and strict customs clearance requirements for fresh agricultural products, the local government has introduced 16 special measures for cross-border trade facilitation. The customs department regularly carries out docking between customs and enterprises, conducts door-to-door lectures on policies that benefit enterprises, comprehensively popularizes convenient customs clearance modes such as early declaration, two-step declaration, and railway express, and realizes the inspection and release of goods upon arrival at the port, greatly reducing the overall clearance time.

In the first five months of 2026, the total import value of durian at Mohan Port reached 7.94 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 46.2%; Among them, the amount of Durian imported through China Laos railway transportation was 3.22 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 36%, and the advantages of railway fresh and cold chain freight transportation became more obvious. The integration of smart customs and smart ports continues to be implemented, and the Mohan Railway Port is equipped with various intelligent customs clearance equipment. The entire vehicle clearance process is handled in one stop, and the overall logistics efficiency of the port has been improved by more than 40%.

Abundant potential for economic and trade cooperation

At present, China is the largest source of foreign investment and the second largest trading partner of Laos. Yunnan and Laos are geographically close and have strong trade complementarity. The space for future economic and trade cooperation is very broad. Looking back at the period from January to August 2025, the bilateral trade volume between Yunnan and Laos exceeded 2 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 20.3%. Keywords: Yunnan, Laos, China Laos Railway

Laos has outstanding advantages in local characteristic agricultural products, with a large number of agricultural and sideline products such as bananas, rubber, mangoes, coffee, and tea sold to Yunnan, which are highly favored by the domestic market and continue to enrich the supply of the domestic consumer market. This also helps Laos' local characteristic agriculture steadily increase income by going abroad. With the continuous upgrading of ports and improvement of channels, the bilateral economic and trade cooperation between Yunnan and Laos will continue to release new momentum in the future.Editor/Gong Ziwei