Ruili's pioneering policies make for good neighbors

Nearly six years after the border city of Ruili took the initiative to allow foreigners to work and live there without needing a passport, the small city in Yunnan province, facing Myanmar, is planning to take another step in that direction.

The city plans to make changes in its employment procedures for foreigners to improve efficiency with the introduction of a "smarter" work permit, the local government said.

The permit is a card called the bao bo in Chinese, the name transliterated from the word for brotherhood in Burmese. The new system will merge three permits required of foreigners - a resident card, a health card and a work card - into one.