Guangxi promotes high-level reform and opening up through the construction of a free trade zone.
Release time:
2019/09/29
Good deeds lead to success in all matters, and good strategies can bring opportunities. The State Council approved the "Overall Plan for the China (Guangxi) Pilot Free Trade Zone." The land of Ba Gui is filled with joy, and the children of the Zhuang ethnic group express their happiness in various ways.
Openness brings new opportunities, and cooperation promotes new development. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that accelerating the implementation of the free trade zone strategy is an objective requirement to adapt to the new trends of economic globalization, a necessary choice for comprehensively deepening reform and building a new open economic system, and an important means for our country to actively manage foreign relations and achieve foreign strategic goals. Establishing the China (Guangxi) Pilot Free Trade Zone (hereinafter referred to as the FTZ) is a major decision made by the Party Central Committee and the State Council, a strategic measure to promote reform and opening up in Guangxi in the new era, and a glorious mission for Guangxi to actively serve and integrate into the country's major strategies and better serve the overall strategic layout of opening up.
Guangxi, located along the coast, borders, and rivers, is the only province in China that has both land borders and maritime channels with ASEAN countries, giving it a unique geographical advantage. General Secretary Xi Jinping has assigned Guangxi a new mission of "three major positions" and clearly stated: "The potential for Guangxi's development lies in openness, and its momentum also lies in openness, with the conditions to play a greater role in the 'Belt and Road' initiative." This reflects General Secretary Xi Jinping's far-reaching planning and earnest expectations for Guangxi's development, considering the global development trend and the overall national development situation. To implement the new mission of the "three major positions" well, the fundamental requirement is to further improve the level of opening up and strive to play the game of open development well.
Since the end of last year, the state has successively issued the "Overall Plan for Building a Financial Open Portal Facing ASEAN in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region" and the "Overall Plan for the New Western Land-Sea Corridor," and now has approved the establishment of a pilot free trade zone in our region, fully reflecting the high importance the Party Central Committee, with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, places on Guangxi's work and its earnest expectations for Guangxi's open development. It also means that Guangxi has ushered in a new wave of openness, which is of milestone significance in the process of Guangxi's reform and opening up.
Building a pilot free trade zone is a major strategic game, requiring both strategic planning and tactical execution. We must seize this historic opportunity, following General Secretary Xi Jinping's call to "dare to explore, dare to try, and innovate independently," further liberating our minds, reforming and innovating, striving for progress, and being bold in breakthroughs. We will fully implement the central government's requirements for creating a new strategic pivot for open development in the southwest and central-south regions, leveraging Guangxi's unique advantages of being adjacent to ASEAN countries by land and sea, focusing on building a new international land-sea trade corridor facing ASEAN, and accelerating the formation of an important gateway that connects the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and the Silk Road Economic Belt. We will strive to construct a new pattern of all-round open development that connects the south, links the north, integrates the east, and cooperates with the west.
"Opportunities are like a god, hard to encounter and easy to lose." We must adhere to the combination of bringing in and going out, focusing on institutional innovation as the core, and ensuring replicability and promotability as basic requirements. We will benchmark against international advanced rules, take the lead in trial and bold innovation in areas such as cross-border trade, logistics, finance, e-commerce, tourism, labor cooperation, and trade facilitation, accelerate the improvement of the foreign investment system and policies, explore more institutional innovation achievements, better leverage the FTZ's role in promoting trade and investment, and drive changes in the quality, efficiency, and momentum of economic development. We will strive to build the FTZ into a high-standard, high-quality free trade park that facilitates trade and investment, provides comprehensive financial services, ensures safe and efficient regulation, has a prominent radiation and driving effect, and leads China-ASEAN open cooperation, injecting new momentum, adding new vitality, and expanding new space for our region's development, contributing wisdom and strength to the new era of China's reform and opening up.