Over the years, Yunnan has been increasing its infrastructure construction throughout the province. Great progress has been made in the construction of airport facilities, railways, highways, waterways, post and telecommunication services and electric power, thus creating more favorable conditions for Yunnan to accelerate its economic development and open wider to the outside world.

In the next several years, Yunnan will continue to strengthen its infrastructure construction and strive to further develop its communication systems in order to establish a modern, overall transportation system covering highways as the basis, railways as the trunk, airports and air routes as the auxiliary and water transport as the supplementary.
Electric Power
By the end of 2003, installed power generating capacity in Yunnan totaled 10,400 MW. Total power generated in 2003 amounted to 47.48 billion kilowatt-hours. It is estimated that in 2002 power sold amounted to 37.5 billion kilowatt-hours, an increase of 21% over 2001, while power transmitted to China Southern Power Grid amounted to 3.2 billion kilowatt-hours with a maximum daily transmission of 1.3 million kilowatt-hours. Power sold within the province amounted to 34.3 billion kilowatt-hours, an increase of 13% over 2001. Total power generated by Yunnan Power Grid in 2002 amounted to 30.104 billion kilowatt-hours, an increase of 24.01% over 2001. Total power sales amounted to 27.823 billion kilowatt-hours, an increase of 22.4% over 2001, representing a sales increase within the province of 14.02%. 50 million KW of generating installed capacity.It is planned that production scale of hydropower in the whole province would have reached more than 9 million KW till 2010, of which, more than 4 million KW are from medium and small hydropower stations.

In the next 17 years, yunnan will invest RMB 250 billion yuan to increase.
Post and Telecommunications
Following a period of rapid development, networking and electronic control is widely in application in post and telecommunications in Yunnan. In particular, the telecommunications network in Yunnan has been working towards digital, wideband, intelligent, personal and multi-media telecommunications. In 2002, total postal business volume amounted to 12.42 billion RMB, total switchboard capacity for fixed phones was 6.944 million phones and for mobile phones was 7.34 million. The proportion of phone users reached 21.67 phones per one hundred persons, of which principal line users represented 10.08 phones per one hundred persons. By the end of 2002, phone subscribers in the province totaled 9.39 million, 4.37 million fixed phones and 5.02 million mobile phones.
Waterway Transport
Waterway Transport has six major river systems: the Jingsha River, Lancang River, Nujiang River, Ayeyarwady River, the Pearl River and the Red River, and over 30 lakes. The total length of navigable river channels in the province amounts to around 8,000km. At present, the length of inland navigation is 1,324 km. Major waterways are the Jingsha and Lancang Rivers and the main ports are Shuifu, Suijiang, Jinghong, Simao and Dali. Jinghong and Simao Ports have now been formally opened for business following national inspection and approval.

To meet the needs of regional economic cooperation and development, the governments of China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand signed a Commercial Navigation Agreement on the Lancang-Mekong River in April 2002, formally launching international navigation on the river. This international waterway in Yunnan has drawn a great deal of attention from the central government.

It is planned that Yunnan will invest 367.50 million RMB in the construction of shipping channels in the next five years. The tonnage of ships for international navigation on the Lancang-Mekong River will be increased from 100 to 200 tons, which will help strengthen economic cooperation between Yunnan Province and its neighboring countries.
Highways
Highways extend in all directions in Yunnan. A highway communication network has been established, with Kunming as the centre, inter-provincial highways and provincial roads as the framework, radiating throughout the province and connecting Yunnan with other provinces: Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangxi, and Tibet and neighboring countries including Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand. By the end of 2003, the total length of highways had reached 166,133 km, the highest in China. Total length of expressways of Class II and above reached 3,278km.

International Highways
The Kunming to Bangkok (Kunming-Mohan-Bangkok) International Highway is a total of 1,805 km long. The 694-km-long section in Yunnan from Kunming to Mohan Port has been upgraded to expressway.
The Kunming to Myanmar (Kunming-Ruili-Yangon) International Highway is 1,917km long. The total length within Yunnan from Kunming to Ruili is 760km.
The construction of international highways has strengthened contacts between China and ASEAN countries, highlighted the advantages of Yunnan’s location, and accelerated the social and economic development of Yunnan Province. It will play a significant role in the development of the pillar industries in Yunnan and promote the process of building Yunnan into an international gateway connecting China with Southeast and South Asian countries.
Future Prospects in Highway Construction
In the next 5 years, priority will be given to the construction of 8 highways and upgrading of 6 existing major highways, to increase the ratio of high grade highways to around 2.6% of the total road length in the province, and to increase the overall standard of the highway network.
Railway Transport
The main rail links in Yunnan run from Guiyang to Kunming, Chengdu to Kunming, Nanning to Kunming, Neijiang to Kunming, Yunnan to Vietnam, Kunming to Yuxi and Guangtong to Dali. Construction of the Dali to Lijiang Railway will begin soon and the first-phase of preparation work for the Trans-Asian Railway connecting Yunnan with Southeast Asian countries is now being carried out.
In 2002, the total length of railway in Yunnan reached 2,300km, transporting 13.969 million passengers and 43.151 million tons cargo. The cargo turnover totaled 21.31 billion tons. The electrification of Panxi Railway has been completed and the reconstruction and expansion of Kunming Railway Station is under way. The feasibility study and early preparation work is being carried out on a reception center for international containers, Zhanyi-Kunming line and the Trans-Asian Railway.

Within 5 years, the construction of the Chinese section (the Eastern Line) of the Kunming to Singapore Railway will begin. It is also possible that Yunnan railways will connect with the Southeast Asian railway network, especially the Thai section, bringing a new boost to railway construction of Yunnan.
Civil Aviation
Civil aviation in Yunnan has been developing rapidly in recent years. Yunnan Airlines now merged with China Eastern, owns 3 Boeing 767-300, 16 Boeing 737-300 and 4 Boeing 737-700 passenger aircrafts. Recently, the company purchased six 50-seat Bombadiar jet planes from Canada. Yunnan Air now flies 103 international, domestic and regional air routes, of which 11 international and regional air routes connect Yunnan with Hong Kong and Macao autonomous regions and cities in neighboring countries, including Singapore, Bangkok, Seoul, Vientiane, Chiang Mai. In addition to Kunming International Airport, Yunnan also has nine feeder airports in Xishuangbanna, Mangshi, Simao, Zhaotong, Baoshan, Dali, Lijiang, Diqing and Lincang. All the airports are equipped with advanced telecommunication navigation facilities.
In order to carry out the plan to strengthen Yunnan as an international gateway, the first-phase in the preparation work for the new Kunming International Airport is now under way and two further feeder airports in Wenshan and Honghe are under construction.