BEIJING, June 21 (Xinhua) – South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, an important link between China and ASEAN, has achieved remarkable results in cooperation with ASEAN countries.
Data showed that Guangxi's foreign trade volume reach 410.671 billion yuan in 2018, showing an increase of 5 percent year on year. Of the total, the region’s trade with ASEAN, its biggest trading partner, rose 6.3 percent year on year to 206.149 billion yuan, accounting for about 50.2 percent of the region’s total foreign trade.
In February this year, the country rolled out a comprehensive plan on promoting the construction of China-ASEAN Information Harbor, signaling that the Harbor has entered an all-round construction phase.
China-ASEAN Information Harbor, a major infrastructure jointly built by China and 10 ASEAN countries since 2015, has gradually become an information hub serving the region to be deeply involved in the construction of Belt and Road, to strengthen cooperation with ASEAN countries, and to cultivate the new driving momentum for the region development.
As of the end of April , Guangxi has yielded fruitful results in accelerating the construction of China-ASEAN Information Harbor.
Since the building of China-ASEAN Information Harbor, a growing number of domestic well-known enterprises, such as Huawei, Alibaba, JD.com, Tencent, and China construction Bank, have expanded their presences in Guangxi, while deepening their business cooperation with the region in various fields, such as big data industry, smart city, digital government affairs, which to some extent, has injected fresh vitality into the construction of China-ASEAN Information Harbor and provided further impetus for Guangxi digital economic development.
Besides, business cooperation between Guangxi and ASEAN countries has been further expanded. By the end of 2018, Guangxi has hosted China-ASEAN Information Harbor Forum for three consecutive years, which greatly enhanced the influence of the China-ASEAN Information Harbor construction at home and abroad, and created a good platform for international communication and cooperation.
Earlier this year, Guangxi issued a new plan to accelerate the construction of an open financial gateway to ASEAN countries.
According to the plan released by China's central bank, and 12 ministries and commissions, Guangxi will be built into a financial service base serving ASEAN members by 2020, and become a pilot region to allow qualified domestic institutions to invest in overseas markets and allow qualified issuers from ASEAN countries to issue yuan-denominated bonds in domestic markets.
The effective implementation of the plan will speed up the formation of a new pattern of comprehensive opening-up in Guangxi, deepen the financial cooperation between China and ASEAN countries, consolidate their economic and trade relations, better service the construction of the Belt and Road, and further promote the cooperation between the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area and the Greater Mekong Sub-region countries. (Edited by Yang Yifan, yangyifan@xinhua.org)
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