Abstract: Tibet Autonomous Region has made tremendous progress in commerce sector during the 12th Five-Year Plan period, as exports and imports, port construction, two-way investment and trade platform building entered a new stage, laying a foundation for building Tibet into a key pathway to South Asia. As the national "Belt and Road" construction is in full swing and the Six National Symposium on Work in Tibet announced new plans governing Tibet, theCPC Central Committee and the State Council proposed the construction of Tibet as a key pathway to South Asia, bringing new opportunities, ideas and dimensions to the regional economic and social development. For the next step, the commerce sector in Tibet will implement all arrangements concerning opening-up and realize internally-generated, sustainable and inclusive development for Tibet‘s open economy.

First, great progress was made in the open economic development during the 12th Five-Year Plan period, laying a good foundation for building a key pathway to South Asia. During the 12th Five-Year Plan period, Tibet‘s open economy aligned stability with sustainable progress and played a proactive role in maintaining stable growth, making structural adjustment, improving people‘s lives, continuously made breakthroughs, and contributed to the regional economic and social development.

Main features are as follows. 1) Foreign trade experienced stable and fast growth. During the 12th Five-Year Plan period, exports and imports and small-volume border trade reached 70.29 billion yuan and 43.65 billion yuan, 3.67 times and 4.39 times more than that during the 11th Five-Year Plan period. The share of small-volume border trade in foreign trade rose to 62 percent from 52 percent. 2) The border trade delivered substantial benefits to local people, with trade volume climbing to 3.83 billion yuan at an annual growth rate of 15 percentduring the 12th Five-Year Plan period. The border trade in Shigatse, Ngari Sanai and Shannan helped many border residents get rich. 3) Ports play a more important role. Gyirong Port realized two-side opening-up. A host of construction or renovation projects of aviation ports in Gyirong, Burang and Lhasa were completed. During the 12th Five-Year Plan period, cargo traffic of ports in Tibet and the number of people entering and leaving Tibet rose by 60 percent and 64 percent respectively compared with the 11th Five-Year Plan period. 4) "Going out" and "bringing in" strategies witnessed an increase in quality and efficiency. During the 12th Five-Year Plan period, the actually utilized foreign capital in the region hit US$570 million, with a spate of international brands such as Shangri-La and KFC opening hotels and restaurants in Lhasa. The region‘s out-bound investment reached US$234 million, with Tibet Airlines partnered with Nepal to establish Himalaya Airlines. 5) Foreign economic and trade platform made progress. Economic and trade promotion activities such as China Tibetan Tourism and Cultural International Expo and China Tibet-Nepal Economic and Trade Fair, and intra-governmental exchange mechanism such as China-Nepal economic and trade coordination committee played an active role in promoting foreign trade.

Second, building a pathway to South Asia represents new opportunities, ideas and dimensions given by the national "Belt and Road" initiative to Tibet. In the second half of 2013, President Xi Jinping proposed the grand cooperation initiative of the "Belt and Road" which drew wide attraction from the international society and positive response from many countries. In March 2015, the National Development and Reform Commission, joined by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce, issued the Vision and Actions on Jointly Building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, which put forward that we should promote the border trade and tourism and culture cooperation between Tibet Autonomous Region and neighboring countries such as Nepal. In August 2015, the sixth National Symposium on Work in Tibet was convened in Beijing and proposed that Tibet should promote the trade distribution industry and build Tibet into an important pathway to South Asia. Therefore, under the guidance of national "Belt and Road" initiative, we think:

Constructing the pathway to South Asia represents new opportunities for the top-level design of national opening-up. Under the backdrop of the national "Belt and Road" initiative, giving prioritizing support to the construction of Tibet as the pathway to South Asia is a major strategic decision made by the central government who takes domestic and international status quo as well as Tibetan realities into consideration based on the short-term and long-term interests. This will unleash enormous institutional bonus and provide major opportunities for accelerating industrial transformation and upgrading and strengthening capacities of economic development in Tibet.

Constructing the pathway to South Asia represents new ideas for the international integration development in the region. Tibet‘s open economy enjoys a unique geographic position and has a long history of traditional exchanges. The construction of Tibet as the pathway to South Asia will uphold the Silk Road Spirit of peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, learning from each other, mutual benefits and win-win results, and work with others on the basis of wide consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits to promote development and opening-up and contribute to integration development with neighboring countries, so as to provide new room for economic development of Chinese provinces and South Asian countries.

Constructing the pathway to South Asia adds new dimensions to the economic supply-side reform in the region. The border trade development and tourism, culture and international trade cooperation will provide shifting power to Tibetan economic development and boost institutional supply. The border trade and tourism and culture cooperation can not only stimulate the development of commercial distribution, tourism and cultural sectors, but also contribute to efficient flow of domestic and overseas factors, endowing region central cities, special border towns, economic development zones and industrial parks with new missions and reshaping regional economy development pattern.

Third, promote the construction of Tibet as a key pathway to South Asia to realize internally generated, sustainable and inclusive development. The construction needs support from all parties, especially the docking with channels and policies of South Asian countries such as Nepal. Despite of many difficulties, we are determined to do a good job in carrying out the following tasks.

First, introduce domestic and foreign capital, nurture advantages and promote internally generated development. The key to the construction of the pathway to South Asia is market players. We will push forward the "internet plus distribution" and "internet plus trade" plans, introduce modern logistics enterprises, foster open commercial trade distribution sector with competitive edges. we will guide and encourage the development of market players engaged in foreign trade, cultivate competitive edges against South Asia with a focus on technology, brand, marketing and services, give a boost to the border trade and the building of capacities for players in the border trade.

Second, seize opportunities to realize sustainable development through transforming and upgrading. The difficulty in building the pathway to South Asia is factor constraint. We will boost port construction, promote low-carbon transportation such as public rail transport, and facilitate the trade transportation to smooth the flow of goods. We will explore and promote new means for economic and trade cooperation on cross-border communication, electricity and oil gas, beef up efforts to attract investment and hi-tech enterprises, encourage the export of hi-tech products from sectors of environmental protection and equipment manufacturing, and deepen cooperation with South Asian countries including Nepal on technologies and standards.

Third, advance shared interests, focus on South Asia to promote inclusive development. The core of building pathway to South Asia lies in mutual benefits and win-win results. We will make a better use of international expos such as Tibet Expo and China Tibet-Nepal Economic and Trade Fair, give full play to intra-governmental exchange platforms such as the economic and trade coordination commission between Tibet and Nepal, strengthen economic and trade exchanges, intensify communication, pivot on South Asian countries such as Nepal to engage in cooperation on port building, trade facilitation, energy internet, capacity cooperation and helping border residents get rich, seek converging interests and the largest denominator in cooperation and work together to maximize interests concerning the South Asian pathway.

Ladies and gentlemen:

The "Belt and Road" initiative is a "Chinese plan" aimed at promoting global development and cooperation. Building a key pathway to South Asia answers the call of the national opening-up and foreign policy towards neighboring countries and represents a "Tibetan chapter" to be written in the new era and new stage. We will break new ground based on past success, work together with all parties to build an important pathway to South Asia and deliver benefits to all.

(Yang Guoliang, director of the Commercial Bureau of the Tibet Autonomous Region)