Learn Mandarin online - Guangxi ready to 'march forward'

BIZCHINA / Local Resources

Guangxi ready to 'march forward'

(China Daily)
Updated: 2007-01-18 08:38

NANNING, Guangxi: Southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is
set to develop its traffic infrastructure and forge extensive cooperative
ties to cash in on its geographical advantages, a senior official said
recently.

"Guangxi, being at the junction of the economic circles of South China,
Southwest China and China-ASEAN member states, enjoys a unique geographic
advantage. The time has come for the region to play a bigger role in
China's economic development," said Liu Qibao, Party secretary of the
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The autonomous region is intensifying efforts to improve its traffic
infrastructure, diversify cooperation ties and develop its coastal cities
into a economic powerhouse.

Liu said the Ministry of Railways had joined hands with Guangxi to extend
and improve train services during the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10) with
an investment of up to 100 billion yuan ($12.82 billion).

After the railway projects are completed, Guangxi will become a pivotal
point with easy access to South China and Southwest China, as well as the
ASEAN member states, he said.

Guangxi's budget for the traffic network, including roads and
expressways, has been set at 74.9 billion yuan ($9.60 billion) in the
11th Five-Year Plan. The budget for ports development is 10.2 billion
yuan ($1.31 billion) and for inland navigation projects, 4.8 billion yuan
(615.38 million), Liu said.

"We cannot use Guangxi's geographical advantages to the full until a
well-developed traffic network is in place," he said. "The region will
play its strategically irreplaceable role in regional cooperations
between China and ASEAN members and between Guangxi and other provinces
in the Greater Pearl River Delta region."

He said Guangxi will pursue every opportunity to diversify economic ties,
and special attention would be paid to cooperation with the ASEAN members
along the three economic belts, which he described as "one axis and two
wings".

The "axis", he said, is an international economic belt from Guangxi's
capital of Nanning to Singapore via Hanoi in Vietnam, Phnom Penh in
Cambodia, Bangkok in Thailand and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

1 2 

(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)

Learn Mandarin online