Nanning, capital of Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, is speeding up its cross-border financial innovation towards ASEAN and will strive to finish construction of a core area of the ASEAN open financial gateway by 2023.

The city has launched more than 10 innovative financial reform measures featuring the cross-regional use of renminbi in ASEAN countries.

Its reform of cross-border finance between China and ASEAN has been listed among the top 10 best institutional innovations in China's free trade zones from 2019 to 2020. 

The China-ASEAN Financial City, located in Nanning's Wuxiang New District, is expected to take shape by 2023.

As of the end of March, the city had welcomed a total of 194 financial institutions or companies, and a batch of major platforms, such as the Southeast Asia operation center of Bank of China (Hong Kong) and the ASEAN insurance service center of China Taiping Insurance Group, have also settled down there.

The overall amount of Nanning's cross-border RMB settlement reached 62.4 billion yuan ($9.6 billion) in 2020, accounting for 40 percent of Guangxi's total. The city topped 12 provincial or regional capital cities and municipalities in West China in terms of its premium income in 2020.  

Officials said that Nanning will fully grasp the development opportunities brought by the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) to enhance cooperation with ASEAN in cross-border finance, turning the city into a nationally famous financial cluster.