To date, more than 90,000 enterprises have settled in the China (Guangxi) pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ).

In the first quarter of this year, the total volume of foreign trade in the Guangxi FTZ reached 65.51 billion yuan ($9.43 billion), up 103.4 percent year on year, while the zone's actually utilized foreign investment reached $298 million, up 484 percent year on year.

In the first quarter, the import and export volume of cross-border e-commerce in the Nanning area of the Guangxi FTZ reached 4.13 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 52.1 percent. The number of financial institutions in the Nanning area has also reached 432, about 20.6 times that of 2018.

The Nanning area of the Guangxi FTZ has also made great efforts to develop the Nanning Comprehensive Bonded Zone and China-ASEAN Financial City.

The Nanning area of the Guangxi FTZ thrives in the first quarter. [Photo/WeChat account: gh_df8bc987e060]

Over the same period, the Qinzhou Port area of the Guangxi FTZ achieved a total industrial output value of 32.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 15.4 percent. The combined sea-rail freight trains of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor ran 2,167 times, up 25 percent year-on-year. The container throughput relating to these trains reached 1.23 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), up 13.8 percent year-on-year.

The Chongzuo area of the Guangxi FTZ also signed new projects with an investment of 730 million yuan within this period.

On Feb 8, Guangxi unveiled its plan to deepen the reform and opening-up of the Guangxi FTZ. The zone will accelerate the development of its overseas cross-border e-commerce, its border and bonded warehouses, as well as its big commodity trading storage and transportation bases. In doing so, the Guangxi FTZ will improve the level of its foreign trade and promote foreign investment.