The fourth session of the 13th Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Regional People's Congress kicked off in Nanning, capital of Guangxi, on Jan 21, with the aim of laying out a blueprint for the region's future development.

Lan Tianli, acting chairman of Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, delivered the 2020 government work report, noting that Guangxi is set to devote more effort to developing border trade and speeding up opening up and cooperation with ASEAN countries.

Lan Tianli, acting chairman of Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, delivers the 2020 government work report during the meeting. [Photo by Yu Jing/chinanews.com]

Three cities and eight counties (districts) in Guangxi border Vietnam, which shares a 696-kilometer boundary in land and a 1,595-km boundary in sea with China.

Lan said that accelerating the innovative development of border trade will be one of the key focuses for Guangxi in 2021. 

The region will promote pilot projects for the processing of border trade goods and resume the operation of border trade areas such as Dongxing Wharf.

A batch of import and export processing bases, international industrial capacity cooperation bases and trade service bases will be built to form a cluster based around ASEAN processing trade, and a distinctive border and coastal economic belt will be developed.

Explorations will be made in building demonstration zones in border areas to undertake industry transfers, and in upgrading border industrial parks, forming cross-border industrial chains for areas spanning electronic information, the deep processing of agricultural and sideline products as well as furniture manufacturing.

Renovation projects for border expressways such as G219 have also been put on the agenda. High-speed railway lines will extend to two border ports, namely Dongxing and Pingxiang, and several other border ports will be connected via expressway.

The fourth session of the 13th Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Regional People's Congress commences in Nanning on Jan 21. [Photo by Yu Jing/chinanews.com]

Lan pointed out that Guangxi will take further steps to turn the China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) into an event that will better serve the member countries of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

At present, Guangxi has been speeding up the construction of major platforms such as the open financial gateway for ASEAN, the China-ASEAN Information Harbor and the Fangchenggang International Medical Opening-up Pilot Zone, facilitating circulation channels between domestic and ASEAN markets, enhancing economic and trade cooperation with ASEAN countries, cultivating new foreign trade models including cross-border electronic commerce, and promoting the construction of China-ASEAN cross-border industrial parks and logistics systems.

In 2021, Guangxi will set its sights on the construction of projects including a China-ASEAN digital economic industrial park and a China-ASEAN economic and trade center while deepening collaboration with ASEAN countries in education, achieving all-round opening up and cooperation.

In addition, Lan summarized Guangxi's achievements in "leap-forward" development, as the year 2020 marked the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020).

The region conducted a total of 4,607 sea-rail intermodal freight trains along the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor in 2020, with a year-on-year growth of 105 percent. The container throughput of Beibu Gulf ports reached 5.05 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) in 2020.

The number of companies settling in the China (Guangxi) Pilot Free Trade Zone amounted to 21,000 by 2020 and the overall number of financial institutes being introduced to the China-ASEAN Financial Town reached 162.

The total import and export volume of Guangxi during the 13th Five-Year Plan period achieved an annual growth of 8.8 percent on average, and 48.9 percent of the volume was made between the region and ASEAN.

Guangxi has signed 2,302 projects with State-owned companies, private companies, and Greater Bay Area companies in 2020, with an overall investment of 3.4 trillion yuan ($524.92 billion)