China's Guangxi becoming hub for China-ASEAN trade

Over the past decade, China has been striving to build the remote Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region into an international transportation hub that can support the increasingly frequent exchanges between China and the ASEAN.

China and the ASEAN established a strategic partnership in 2003, and the two sides have witnessed their bilateral trade volume increase fivefold and the scale of two-way investment expand threefold since then.

Serving as a gateway to the ASEAN, Guangxi has played an important role in improving transportation connecting the two sides and boosting bilateral trade and exchanges.

Early in 2005, an expressway linking Nanning, capital city of Guangxi, and Friendship Pass, a pass bordering Vietnam, was put into use, marking the first highway that connects China and the ASEAN countries.

Over the past decade, extensive highway construction has taken place in the region to give more cities of the ASEAN member countries better access to Guangxi. Approval has been granted in the region to 28 international roads, 11 of which have been opened for freight and passenger transport.

The first train route linking Nanning and Hanoi, Vietnam's capital, has served more than 130,000 passengers since it started running in 2009.

The Debao-Jingxi Railway, the second train line linking Guangxi and Vietnam, which opened in December, 2012, has also played a great role in boosting bilateral trade.

In addition, Guangxi now has 12 international airlines with regular flights flying to major cities of eight ASEAN countries. The region is now trying to speed up construction of airport facilities and open to more international airlines.

Meanwhile, the port cluster in the Beibu Gulf now has more than 30 container shipment routes that link over 200 global ports. Its handling capacity hit 174 million tonnes last year, making it a new highlight in China-ASEAN cooperation.