Relevant departments in Yunnan Province have learned that construction is accelerating on four high-grade highways in the province, which are oriented toward Southeast and South Asia. By 2010, the Yunnan sections of all four major international corridors leading to these two regions will be fully completed.

　　According to reports, the four high-grade highways are as follows: 1. The Yunnan section of the Kunming–Bangkok Highway will fully transition to a high-grade highway system primarily based on expressways by 2007. Currently, the Yunnan segment of the over 1,800-kilometer-long Kunming–Bangkok route has largely been completed as a high-grade road. Meanwhile, the Thai section has already achieved full high-grade status. As for the Lao section—where construction is jointly undertaken by the three countries involved—the Chinese portion has already been fully finished. Construction on the Lao segment is set to wrap up by April next year, while the Thai section is expected to be completed by October of the same year. 2. The Yunnan section of the international corridor linking Kunming to Vietnam will be fully completed by 2007. 3. Construction of the Chinese section of the international highway stretching from Kunming via western Yunnan toward Yangon is scheduled to fully transition into a high-grade highway network by 2010. 4. The Chinese segment of the international highway connecting Kunming through Baoshan, Tengchong, and Houqiao to Myanmar’s Myitkyina and onward to India’s Ledo and Bangladesh’s Chittagong is projected to become a high-grade highway by 2008.