Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region invested 25.1 billion yuan ($4 billion) over the first five months of 2021 to push forward the construction of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, officials from the Transport Department of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region said on June 2.

This investment, which accounts for 58.1 percent of the region's annual investment plan for the corridor, was for a total of 28 projects.

Guangxi has formed a transport network featuring railway and expressway passages that connects ASEAN and inland domestic areas including Guizhou province, Chongqing municipality, Sichuan province and Gansu province.

Three major expressways in Guangxi - namely G69 Leye-Baise expressway, G72 Nanning-Qinzhou-Fangchenggang expressway and G72 Liuzhou-Nanning expressway - have been connected, significantly increasing the transportation capacity of the region's expressways.

New expressways such as the one linking Huaihua, Longsheng, Rong'an, Yizhou, Nanning, Shangsi and Fangchenggang are now under construction.

Construction of railway projects has also been moved forward. The Huaihua-Liuzhou section of the Jiaozuo-Liuzhou Railway is being electrified to provide solid support for the development of sea-rail intermodal transportation on the corridor.

The number of sea-rail intermodal trains running on the corridor in the first four months on 2021 has exceeded 10,000. 

Efforts have also been made to optimize shipping channels in the Beibu Gulf. These include the first two phases of Qinzhou Port's east channel expansion project and the automatic container wharf at Qinzhou Port. The number of berths at Beibu Gulf ports has now reached 272, including 99 at 10,000-metric-ton level. The annual capacity of Beibu Gulf ports now exceeds 300 million tons.