Nippon Express (China), a subsidiary of Nippon Express, established a liaison office in Nanning, capital of Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, in February, to offer more convenience to its customers by improving logistical links with Southeast Asian countries.

Nippon Express is currently the biggest comprehensive logistics company in Japan, and has a global reputation.

Guangxi, located in South China, borders ASEAN countries both by land and sea. The region has become more important in terms of cross-border logistics in recent years, as economic and trade exchanges between China and ASEAN become more regular.

The Beibu Gulf handled an overall container throughput of 5.05 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) in 2020 and operated 4,607 sea-rail intermodal freight trains, serving 49 stations in 23 cities in seven provinces or autonomous regions in West China.

A total of 1,264 China-Vietnam cross-border trains were operated from the Pingxiang Railway Port, an increase of 23.2 percent year-on-year.

The person in charge of Nippon Express's liaison office in Nanning noted that the company is optimistic about the prospect for China-ASEAN cooperation in the economy and trade, and therefore they chose Nanning to set up their office.

"At present, six ASEAN countries have set up consulates general in Nanning including Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia," added the person in charge.

Guangxi has now attracted a batch of outstanding global logistics giants such as the Deutsche Post DHL Group and the Global Logistics Properties. 

Wei Ran, deputy director of the office for the planning and construction of Beibu Gulf Economic Zone, said that more cooperation in areas spanning ports, logistics and information will be carried out between Guangxi and countries including Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand, in order to push forward the establishment of a China-ASEAN multi-modal transport alliance.