Life of Guangzhou - Guangxi is Region's Best Trading Partner

Although the Chinese province of Guangxi may not be as popular as its neighbour Guangdong, it has been Asean's best friend in trade for more than a decade.

It is China's only province in the south that shares sea passage with Asean countries. This makes it the gateway for further economic cooperation with its Southeast Asian neighbours.

Asean's trade with Guangxi has expanded despite the lingering effects of the world recession last year.

"From January to July this year, Guangxi's trade with the Asean surpassed US$3.11 billion (RM9.73 billion), almost 40 per cent more than the same seven months of last year," said China's Guangxi province vice secretary-general Wei Ran.

He spoke to reporters at the seventh Caexpo promotional conference in the Nanning city of Guangxi province yesterday. Also present was Guangxi province commerce department vice director-general Ma Ji Xian.

In the next three years, Guangxi plans to build bigger ports with annual handling capacity of 300 million tonnes. Guangxi also has direct air routes with 11 cities in eight Asean countries.

China's Ministry of Commerce has listed Caexpo as one of its major trade fairs. This year, Caexpo will be held here.

Essentially, the Caexpo series help boost Guangxi's economic ties with Asean. From 2003 to 2009, Ma said, Guangxi's trade with Asean grew from US$826 million (RM2.59 billion) to US$4.95 billion (RM15.5 billion), up 35 per cent annually. Asean has been Guangxi's largest trading partner for the last 11 years.

Ma sees trade services as a new growth area under Cafta. From 2002 to 2008, the service trade volume between Guangxi and Asean rose from US$81.2 million to US$1.66 billion (RM254 million to RM5.2 billion), with average growth of 65.4 per cent a year.

[More Guangdong and Pan PRD News]