A press conference on the economic and social development of Guigang, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region is held in Nanning on July 8. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

A press conference on the economic and social development of Guigang, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region was held in Nanning on July 8 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Li Xinyuan, Party secretary of Guigang, speaks at the press conference. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Li Xinyuan, Party secretary of Guigang, gave an introduction to the economic and social development achievements of the city at the press conference.

Guigang is located in the southeast of Guangxi and in the middle reaches of the Xijiang River in the Pearl River Basin. The total population of the city is 5.6 million. Guigang is known as the "lotus city" and is the starting city for the Maritime Silk Road. It is one of the important node cities of the Pearl River-Xijiang Economic Belt.

The city of Guigang. [Photo provided by Guigang publicity department to gx.chinannews.com]

In 2018, the city's regional GDP reached 117 billion yuan ($17 billion), about 3.4 times higher than 1996, when the city was formally established. The per capita GDP reached 27,000 yuan, and the fiscal revenue was 10.66 billion yuan. The total investment in fixed assets and the total output value of industrial enterprises above designated size are 89 times and 43 times of the 1996 total respectively.

The urban area of the city has expanded from 18 square kilometers to 118 square kilometers, and the urbanization rate has increased by 26 percent. In 2018, the per capita disposable income of urban residents and rural residents in Guigang was 30,506 yuan and 13,786 yuan respectively, which were 6.8 times and 7.2 times as much as when the city was established.

The container wharf of Guigang Port. [Photo provided by Guigang publicity department to gx.chinannews.com]

The cargo throughput of Guigang Port ranks first among Guangxi's inland river ports. The city is striving to build a second automobile production base, a China-ASEAN new energy electric vehicle production base, and an electronic information manufacturing base. The city will speed up the construction of the core port and the strategic emerging industrial city of the Xijiang River.

On the basis of promoting the upgrading of traditional industries such as building materials, metallurgy, sugar, sheet metal, and electricity, Guigang has introduced a number of emerging industrial projects, including new energy vehicles and electric vehicles, electronic information, as well as biomedical industries

Guigang is making efforts to build a second automobile production base featuring new energy, striving to achieve an annual production of 1 million vehicles by 2025 and an output value of 200 billion yuan, which will provide a strong support to the establishment of a strategic emerging industrial city in Guangxi.

According to Li Xinyuan, the industrial development of Guigang has been booming, with the city becoming a hub for investment and industry. From 2016 to 2018, there were 910 new contracted projects launched in the city, with a contractual investment of 246.41 billion yuan and capital of 134.85 billion yuan in place. The city's corporate investment environment satisfaction has ranked first in Guangxi for two consecutive years.