Common Development of CAEXPO and Beibu Gulf Economic Zone

Written by Wang Gongqing / Translated by Han Rong

Common Development of CAEXPO and Beibu Gulf Economic Zone

Written by Wang Gongqing / Translated by Han Rong

A review of CAEXPOs over the past 12 years shows that significant achievements have been made in Guangxi and Beibu Gulf Economic Zone (BGEZ). In July 2013, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang stated that Guangxi is the sole province possessing large-scale coastal port -- Qinzhou Port in western China. Qinzhou Port oriented towards ASEAN should work together with Fangchenggang Port and Beihai Port to form a unifi ed and open diversifi ed investment mechanism, so as to build BGEZ into a strategic pivot open to the ASEAN region, raising higher and more specifi c requirements for the development and planning of BGEZ.

According to the experts, CAEXPO serves as the best carrier and platform to achieve BGEZ’s development goals. In the fi fth CAEXPO in 2008, a series of major achievements were made: initiatively introducing China-ASEAN extra-regional cooperative mechanism; holding ASEM Roundtable Meeting for Investment Promotion Agencies, etc. Since then, BGEZ has been increasingly drawing the attention of ASEAN and even the whole world. The experts suggest that BGEZ has become the most dynamic region nationwide for the exchanges of information between ASEAN and China. Surin, the former Secretary-General of the ASEAN Secretariat, said that CAEXPO plays the leading role in promoting China-ASEAN cooperation in BGEZ, and bringing about potential development opportunities to this region.

International connectivity access

Both CAEXPO and BGEZ are closely related with each other, complementing each other and developing into an integrated whole. At present, the city port cooperation network has been established by BGEZ and 46 ASEAN city ports; the logistics distribution center has been preliminarily completed between BGEZ and 7 ASEAN countries such as Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia; 6 expressways linking Vietnam and China (Yunnan, Guizhou, Hunan and Guangdong) have been opened to traffi c, etc. On September 13, 2015, China-ASEAN Information Harbor was officially established, which lays a solid foundation for the information connectivity between ASEAN and China. For the moment, China-ASEAN sea-land-air transportation network expanded from BGEZ has been formed, and China-ASEAN international grand access is also being constructed, which is favorable for providing CAEXPO and China-ASEAN cooperation with better infrastructure, as well as reducing the costs of logistics.

Industry cooperation platform & base

Under the influence of the previous CAEXPOs, there are a host of ASEAN enterprises investing in Guangxi, such as Indonesia’s Sina Mas Group, Singapore’s Noble Group, and Malaysia’s Rimbunan Hijau Group; meanwhile, BGEZ, by virtue of CAEXPO, also cooperates with Singapore and Malaysia to enhance industrial capacity cooperation, especially in electronic information, grain & oil processing, energy resources and petrochemical engineering, building itself into a good platform for ASEAN-China industrial capacity cooperation.

In terms of industry development, both China-Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park and Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park have been established, initiating the cooperation model -- “Two Countries, Twin Parks”; BGEZ bonded logistics system including Qinzhou Free Trade Area, Pingxiang Intergraded Free Trade Zone, as well as Nanning Bonded Logistics Center and Beihai Export Processing Zone set up, etc.