Northeast region charts new course to revitalization(4)

Opportunities next door

Analysts have urged local governments to seize the strategic window of the next three to five years and use border ports as an important platform to open up to Northeast Asia.

The region should promote integration of its transportation network with regional neighbors, and deepen its industrial cooperation with Russia, Japan, and the Republic of Korea, especially in fields related to national security, they said.

Da Zhigang, a researcher on regional development with the Heilongjiang Academy of Social Sciences, said the region should be involved in the strategic cooperation between China and Russia. It should also promote mutually beneficial cooperation in the Far East, open up land, sea, and air channels for Northeast Asia, and consolidate connections both domestically and internationally.

Da said the region can utilize the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership to replicate implementation of Southeast Asia's free trade mechanisms in Northeast Asia. In addition, it should explore new opportunities for institutional cooperation between China and Russia, and conduct pilot programs in expanding service trade and producer services, Da said.

The region should develop new subregional models of cooperation between Chinese cities and foreign cities, as well as provincial-level regions, expand connections and cooperation among them, increase cooperation in green and low-carbon fields and expand cooperation between sister cities, he said.

For instance, energy cooperation between China and Russia should be a source of impetus for Heilongjiang's economy, Da added. Thanks to its refineries and transportation facilities in Daqing, the province has the potential to seek a resurgence in the reserve, logistics, and processing industries in the oil and gas sector.