Guangxi to promote cooperation with ASEAN countries in next 5 years

Guangxi will bolster economic and trade cooperation with ASEAN countries and establish cross-border industrial and service chains with ASEAN during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), said Liang Yiguang, deputy head of the Commerce Department of Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, on May 10.

Efforts will be made to attract more investment, promote the integrated development of domestic and overseas trade, and facilitate cross-border logistics.

As the only region of its kind in China to border ASEAN countries by both land and sea, Guangxi has made full use its strategic position to deepen economic and trade cooperation with ASEAN.

Guangxi's total imports and exports in the first quarter of 2021 were valued at 138.51 billion yuan ($21.45 billion), a year-on-year increase of 50.7 percent, while foreign trade between Guangxi and ASEAN countries increased by 74.9 percent. 

Liang said that the ASEAN market will remain a major market for Guangxi as it becomes a major player in fostering the new development paradigm of dual circulation, in which domestic and overseas markets reinforce each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay, during the 14th Five-Year Plan period.

"We will take measures such as expanding the scale of utilized foreign investment, establishing a new service model for foreign businessmen, deepening international production carrying out capacity cooperation and constructing overseas economic and trade cooperation industrial parks," added Liang.

Guangxi's total foreign trade is expected to exceed 685 billion yuan in 2025, increasing by 46 percent compared to 2020.