Hainan promotes Beibu Gulf city cluster with Guangdong, Guangxi

The governments of Hainan province, Guangdong province and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region reached an agreement in Haikou on May 9 prioritizing cooperation modes for promoting the development planning of Beibu Gulf city cluster from 2018 to 2019.

The State Council approved the Beibu Gulf City Cluster Development Planning on Jan 20 last year. Since then, the three regions have formed a cooperative mechanism encompassing various levels of decision-making, coordination and execution. To promote the implementation of the development planning, high-level government officials held face-to-face meetings every year and discussed important cooperation projects and other matters.

From 2018 to 2019 the three regions will promote transportation infrastructure construction to build an city cluster traffic network. The ecological environment management joint-action mechanism will be improved to strengthen defense and control. They will also open more channels and platforms to deepen openness and cooperation in both land and sea. 

Preliminary work in the planning and construction of a high-speed railway project -- which will link the cities of Zhangjiajie, Guilin, Yulin, Zhanjiang and Haikou -- will be launched, and the three sides will try to integrate the project into concerned national plans, according to the agreement.

Industrial linkage development will be accelerated to boost the planning and construction of the Qiongzhou Strait Economic Belt and jointly build world-leading tourist destinations. Moreover, effort will be made to actively connect the Beibu Gulf city cluster with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area via construction of main transport infrastructure, an international aviation hub and a marine economic demonstration area.   

The national-level Beibu Gulf city cluster was approved by the State Council on Jan 20 last year. The planning period is from 2017 to 2020 and an outlook until 2030 was prepared.

Its land area is 116,600 sq km and the coastline reaches 4,234 km. It covers cities and counties in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and Guangdong and Hainan provinces, among them the cities of Nanning, Beihai, Qinzhou, Fangchenggang, Yulin, Chongzuo, Zhanjiang, Maoming, Yangjiang, Haikou, Danzhou and Dongfang and the counties of Chengmai, Lingao and Changjiang.

The city cluster is adjacent to Hong Kong, Macao and Southeast Asia. It is on the southernmost point of China's urbanization strategic pattern and has strategic importance in opening-up and cooperation with ASEAN. Therefore, on the basis of geographic advantages and regional characteristics, the general orientation is a livable blue-bay city cluster appropriate for developing industries facing ASEAN and serving Southwest, South Central and South China.