A press conference is held on Aug 12 to brief the current development of the Nanning Airport Economic Demonstration Zone. [Photo by Wang Liuhui/China News Service]

Nanning Airport Economic Demonstration Zone has welcomed 38 major investment projects from companies such as Shenzhen Transsion and Zhejiang Geely Holding Group with an overall investment of 45.11 billion yuan ($6.96 billion), officials announced during a press conference on Aug 12.

Liu Guifa, deputy secretary general of Nanning municipal people's government, said that since the construction of the zone started in July 2020, it has made positive progress through continuous efforts in areas spanning optimizing overall layout and attracting more industries.

Covering a total area of 118 square kilometers, the zone is striving to become a regional aviation hub for Southeast Asian countries as well as develop a modern aviation industrial cluster featuring sectors such as aviation logistics and aviation hi-tech industry.

The total industrial output value of enterprises above designated size in the zone amounted to 13.94 billion yuan in the first half of 2021, up 15.84 percent year on year. An industrial enterprise above designated size refers to one that has an annual operation revenue surpassing 20 million yuan.

A total of 52 airline companies have now settled down in the Nanning Wuxu International Airport, further increasing the service capacity of the aviation hub.

Deng Yangjun, an official from the Guangxi Airport Group, said that Guangxi will invest more than 20 billion yuan in airport infrastructure construction during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25) and great importance will be attached to the construction of projects such as Terminal 3 at Nanning airport.

In addition, the zone has been taking an active part in launching more passenger and cargo air routes as it has put five new international cargo air routes to ASEAN and South Asian countries into operation in the first half of 2021, creating a total of six global cargo air routes.

From January to June, the passenger throughput at Nanning Wuxu International Airport reached 5.93 million and the cargo throughput amounted to 59,000 metric tons.