The Department of Commerce of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and the consulates of many ASEAN countries in Nanning held a spring tea party in Nanning. Officials from Guangxi and ASEAN countries discussed vision of future cooperation and experienced folk activities such as hydrangea making.
Yang Chunting, director of the Department of Commerce of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, introduced at the event that day that in 2024, the scale of trade between Guangxi and ASEAN countries will continue to expand. Among them, Guangxi’s import and export volume to Vietnam was 295.576 billion yuan (RMB, the same below), an increase of 16.4% year-on-year (the same below); the import and export volume to Thailand was 36.84 billion yuan; the import and export volume to Cambodia was 6.67 billion yuan, an increase of 61.6%; the import and export volume to Laos was 2.435 billion yuan, an increase of 110.2%.
In 2024, Guangxi will fully serve and safeguard the seventh round of negotiations of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0 version, actively implement the market opening commitments and rules of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP), and cultivate a total of 14 enterprises to obtain approved exporter qualifications.
In order to help ASEAN high-quality products enter the Chinese market through the “Guangxi Channel”, in 2024, Guangxi held the Guangxi New Silk Road New Year’s Eve E-commerce Festival, released a number of achievements such as the “Silk Road Integration ASEAN Brand Service Plan for Entering China”, and carried out more than 200 live broadcast activities. The import and export volume of cross-border e-commerce increased by 225.08%.
At present, the Chinese projects of the China-Vietnam Friendship Pass-Friendship Freight Dedicated Channel and the Puzhai-Xinqing Freight Dedicated Channel Smart Port have been basically completed and are about to be put into trial operation. At the same time, the construction of customs facilitation cooperation projects such as the “green channel” for rapid customs clearance of agricultural and sideline products between Guangxi and ASEAN countries, the interconnection of the “single window” for international trade, and the “demonstration port” will be promoted. In 2024, the China-Vietnam trains departing from Guangxi will increase by 1153% year-on-year.
Yang Chunting said that in the next step, Guangxi will continue to deepen exchanges and cooperation with ASEAN countries, jointly improve and solidify existing mechanism platforms with Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia and other countries, and focus on developing new trade formats such as cross-border e-commerce and overseas warehouses. At the same time, we will accelerate the construction of smart border ports between China and Vietnam, build a dense network of international air cargo routes with ASEAN countries, and establish direct routes between Beibu Gulf Port and ports in ASEAN countries.