Guangxi posts strong results in opening-up, trade and social development

Region accelerates pace of growth while firmly grasping dividends of technological innovation

The Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region has made extraordinary achievements in opening-up, trade, and social development since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012.

Based on its geographic advantages, Guangxi has helped to expand the Belt and Road Initiative and support China's opening-up through a series of initiatives, such as building the Beibu Gulf economic zone, integrating into the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and joining hands with ASEAN countries to accelerate the robust leap forward in regional development.

Guangxi has issued a plan for the high-quality construction of the new land-sea corridor in the west with 22 specific measures to support the development of cross-border transportation and air logistics, reduce logistics costs and improve the efficiency of customs clearance.

In 2021, the overall customs clearance time for imports at Guangxi's ports stood at 5.36 hours and the overall customs clearance time for exports reached half an hour.

Qinzhou Port has become an international gateway to the corridor with 10,000-ton ships constantly coming and going.

In 2021, the cargo throughput of Qinzhou Port was 167 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 22.3 percent, the container throughput totaled 4.627 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TUEs), a year-on-year rise of 17.1 percent.

Nanning Customs has further promoted foreign trade and offered enterprises policy dividends, a more stable industrial chain and faster port customs clearance.

Since the beginning of the year, Nanning Customs has issued a total of 760 certificates of origin under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

"After the implementation of RCEP, Nanning Customs helped us carry out special product analysis, and the tariff rate of white cardboard exported to Thailand, Singapore, Japan and other places was immediately reduced to zero, which enabled us to further expand exports," said Zhao Huayong, purchasing manager of Guangxi Sun Paper Co.

Guangxi Yanjinpuzi is a processing enterprise specializing in the production of snack foods in Pingxiang city, Guangxi province.

"The local government's processing policy has helped the company to conduct customs clearance of raw materials and supervised its production, operation and control of quality and safety," said Huang Shizhong, manager of the company.

Up to now, 18 processing enterprises have been registered in Pingxiang, involving fruit, Chinese medicinal materials, aquatic products, and jelly grass processing industries.

In 2021, the output value of the characteristic product processing industry above designated size reached 2.511 billion yuan ($353 million).

In the past 10 years, Guangxi has continuously accelerated the pace of opening-up and development, and at the same time firmly grasped the dividends of technological development and optimized the transformation and upgrading of local industries.

Hechi city has witnessed the blossoming of its mulberry cocoon and silk industry chain.

In the first five months of this year, Hechi has inspected a total of 287.3 tons of silkworm cocoons and silk products for export, worth 46.812 million yuan, an increase of 140 percent and 680 percent year-on-year respectively.

The development momentum of industrial agglomerations is strong. A number of port-side industrial parks with an output value of over 100 billion yuan, such as Beihai and Fangchenggang, are taking shape.

At the same time, enterprises with the characteristics of "specialization, refinement and novelty "have become the new stars on the stage of Guangxi's foreign trade, and more enterprises have begun to boost technological innovation and accelerated their pace to integrate into the international market.

In 2021, Guangxi implemented "six major actions" including 352 major projects with a total investment of 1.89 trillion yuan.

The construction of an ecologically livable Guangxi has continued to advance and the sense of happiness of the Chinese nation has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

Guangxi had taken poverty alleviation as the first livelihood project and a total of 6.34 million registered poor people have been lifted out of poverty.

"If the nation is to rejuvenate, the countryside must be revitalized. After winning the battle against poverty as scheduled, we have entered the stage of comprehensive rural revitalization," said Cai Zhongping, Party secretary of the Department of Forestry of Guangxi.

Over the past 10 years, Guangxi has persistently deepened the publicity and education of national unity and progress, carried forward the excellent culture of various ethnic groups and successfully built a cultural tourism consumption brand with local characteristics.

The reproduced TV series The Daughter of the Mountain has been presented on CCTV for a third time within half a year, which is based on the role model of Huang Wenxiu for her poverty alleviation efforts in Guangxi.

The TV series causes heated discussions on China's social media platforms such as Sina Weibo and Douyin. Another play The New Liu Sanjie also gains popularity among the public with its new themes, characters and platforms.

Liuzhou, the largest industrial city in Guangxi, has successfully blazed a new ecological path on harmonious coexistence between its people and nature.

According to the national surface water environment quality status announced by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment which covered January to June, Liuzhou has jumped to the top in the national surface water assessment section ranking of cities at the prefecture level and above.

Under the "green performance concept", Guilin's ecological and environmental protection work has also achieved gratifying results.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), the proportion of days with good air quality in Guilin reached 96.4 percent, the water quality compliance rate of major rivers and urban centralized drinking water sources remained at 100 percent, the quality of soil environment is stable and improving and the safe utilization rate of polluted plots reached 100 percent.

Qiu Lulucontributed to this story.