The plaque unveiling ceremony for the Beihai Integrated Free Trade Zone is held on Jan 28. [Photo/beihai.gov.cn]

The Beihai Integrated Free Trade Zone began operating on Jan 28. It is expected to further open Guangxi up to international business via preferential policies in bonded processing, logistics, and services.

The zone evolved from the former Beihai Export Processing Zone after the previous zone was optimized and passed inspection by the General Administration of Customs on Jan 9.

The Beihai Export Processing Zone was founded in March 2003 upon the approval of the State Council. It is China's third national inbound maintenance and remanufacturing demonstration zone, and one of Guangxi's first pilot zones under the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement.

Covering an area of 2.28 square kilometers, the new zone consists of an A zone in downtown Beihai and a B zone in Tieshangang district. It will focus on eight areas, including product research and development, processing and manufacturing, after-sales maintenance, commodity display, warehouse logistics, distribution, international transshipments, and foreign trade.