According to a press conference held on Oct 29, Guangxi has made breakthroughs in promoting the construction of the western Land-Sea Trade Corridor this year, spanning strategic upgrading, cross-regional cooperation, land-sea transport, and customs clearance effectiveness.

Yan Baigui, deputy of the Development and Reform Commission of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, noted at the press conference that the western Land-Sea Trade Corridor has been upgraded to a national strategy in August, and that a total of 14 provinces and cities along the trade corridor have signed agreements to strengthen cross-regional cooperation.

Driven by the sea-rail transport of the Land-Sea Trade Corridor, the cargo throughput of the Beibu Gulf ports from January to September reached 185 million tons, an increase of 12.98 percent, and the container throughput was 2.6 million TEUs, an increase of 30.96 percent. As of Oct 20, the Beibu Gulf ports have operated 1,635 sea-rail trains, an increase of 115 percent, and opened 24 foreign trade routes.

Guangxi has promoted the reduction of operating costs and service model innovation to enhance competitiveness, as well as improve the openness level of the ports. It has also put efforts in developing informationization of customs clearance. At present, the overall customs clearance time in Guangxi is 9.63 hours, which is 30.39 hours faster than the national average customs clearance time, ranking first in the Chinese mainland. The Customs Interconnection Information Platform of the western Land-Sea Trade Corridor was officially launched in April this year, initially realizing information sharing of customs logistics supervision and clearance in Nanning, Chongqing, Guiyang, Lanzhou, and Chengdu.

The busy Beibu Gulf port in Guangxi. [Photo by Zhai Liqiang/chinanews.com]