The first press conference of the third session of the 13th Guangxi Zhuang People's Congress is held on Jan 13. [Photo by Xian Yanxing/gxnews.com.cn]

The third session of the 13th Guangxi Zhuang People's Congress held its first press conference on Jan 13, demonstrating the work progress of the China (Guangxi) Pilot Free Trade Zone since its establishment, as well as detailing its future development direction.

Guangxi FTZ has made great progress in more than four months in terms of its work mechanism establishment, reform and innovation, policy optimization, as well as investment promotion.

To date, more than 30 percent of the 120 pilot tasks deployed by the country have been completed, including reforms in fast-track approval procedures and high-end talents service. The Guangxi government has issued and implemented 30 policies to boost Guangxi FTZ, vigorously promoting the gathering of advanced manufacturing, modern service industries, cross-border industries, as well as new economic and new platforms, pushing forward institutional innovation and attracting outstanding talents.

In addition, Guangxi also organized a number of global investment promotion meetings through platforms like the China-ASEAN Expo and the China International Import Expo. As of Dec 31, 2019, Guangxi FTZ has set up a total of 4,724 new enterprises, with a newly-added domestic registered capital of 47.6 billion yuan ($6.9 billion), of which 35 were foreign-funded enterprises, and newly-added foreign contracts amounting to $790 million.

In the future, Guangxi will actively use the advantages of logistics agglomeration brought by the Land-Sea Trade Corridor, and combine policy innovation advantages of the FTZ to promote the development of cooperation platforms, as well as form new highlights in cross-border financial cooperation, cross-border industrial park cooperation, and cross-border information cooperation.

Guangxi will also continue to increase decentralization, reduce approval procedures, as well as improve the efficiency and level of government services to further optimize its business environment and make new contributions to the construction of the FTZ.