Economic Trend News
- China's last economic lowland tries to push up status on coastal economic map
Date: 1-Nov-2007 Sources: (Xinhua Online)
China's southern autonomous region of Guangxi has been striving to lift itself out of an embarrassing status as the country's last economic lowland in the largely rich coastal stretch.
Lu Bing, chairman of the autonomous region government, has said he 'would like to see the express rail tracks and highways completed in a few years from now' to link the region's capital, Nanning, with Vietnamese capital Ho Chi Minh City, which are merely less than 400 kilometers apart from each other.
Flights between Nanning and capitals of Southeast Asian countries nearby will all be launched by the end of this year although the Chinese government may have to provide airlines involved with 200 million yuan (26.67 million U.S. dollars) for limited number of passengers on some of the flights at the initial stage, Lu said at a meeting with Hong Kong investors who are here attending the ongoing China-ASEAN Expo due to close on Wednesday.
'I think it is of utmost importance for us to have a developed logistic network, which may fundamentally facilitate our development,' he said.
One of China's 11 mainland coastal administrative regions at the provincial level, Guangxi has a coastal line stretching about 1,500kilometers. It neighbors the economic plateau province of Guangdong , but with a per capita GDP of about 1,500 U.S. dollars, remains the last economic lowland among the coastal provinces. The world's most populated country has an average per capita GDP of about 2,000 U.S. dollars.
To catch up with the other developed coastal areas, Guangxi has been picking up momentum in economic development, recording double-digit growth in past years.
A major move is to host the high-profile convention and exhibition event -- China-ASEAN Expo, in Nanning since 2004, which now serves as a bridge between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), both geographically and economically.
The annual event features senior officials and businessmen numbered in thousands from both China and ASEAN countries, which are working closely for the establishment of a free trade area targeted for 2010.
Noting Guangxi's unique role in developing the world's most populous free trade area, Hong Kong Trade Development Council Executive Director Fred Lam, who led a mission of businessmen from the logistic industry to Nanning, said 'I think Guangxi has a promising prospect in terms of economic development, particularly in logistics.'
'With its good ports and status as a link connecting China and the ASEAN countries, the autonomous region has what the manufacturing sector and investors desires,' he said.
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