Since the early 1990s, the Chinese government invested a lot in transforming Hunchun into a regional economic center, thanks in large part to the influence of the former Jilin governorWang Zhongyu, whose work with Zhu Rongji allowed him to become the first head of China's State Economic and Trade Commission. On 9 March 1992 the Chinese parliament approved to set up Hunchun Border Economic Cooperation Zone. The national government and Jilin provincial government have invested in succession over four billion yuan in Hunchun through the 1990s. On 16 March 2013, a joint agreement to export textiles to North Korea was announced. The textiles would be made into up to 8,000 shirts in North Korea and exported back to China. Hunchun Border Economic Cooperation Zone was approved to be national-level border economic cooperation zone in 1992, with a planning area of. In 2002 and 2001, Hunchun Export Processing Zone and Hunchun Sino-Russia Trade Zone was set up in it. Being located in the junction of China, Russia, and Korea, it enjoys a strategic location. The city focuses on the development of sea food processing, electronic product manufacture, bio-pharmacy, textile industry and other industries. Hunchun Export Processing Zone is located in area in Hunchun Border Economic Cooperation Zone. Its planned area is. It enjoys good infrastructure and policies as its parent zone does.
Transport
In the early 1990s, Jilin province government constructed a railway and improved the highway to Hunchun. The Tumen River Bridge connects between Hunchun and the North Korean village of Wonjeong in Sonbong County. The bridge was built during the Japanese occupation in 1938. In 2010 the bridge was renovated as part of an agreement between North Korea and China to modernize the Rason port in North Korea. In addition, a new railway line was constructed which links Hunchun and Makhalino in Russia and began operating in February 2000. Hunchun port is from Posyet and from Zarubino port towns of Russia. The Jilin–Hunchun intercity railway, a 250-km/h high-speed passenger rail line from Jilin to Hunchun via Tumen, began construction work in January 2011, and was scheduled and finished at the end of September 2015. The railway has been described as "Dongbei's most beautiful railway" and "the fastest way to Vladivostok". Reflecting the border location of the city, the train station has its sign in four languages: Chinese, Korean, Russian, and English.
