China has promoted its southwest Beibu Bay as a new economic
zone, with approval of the "Guangxi Beibu Bay Economic Zone
Development Plan", announced Ma Biao, Chairman of the Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Region, Thursday in Nanning, capital city of the
region.
According to the plan, the area will be built into the regional
logistic base, the trade base, the processing and manufacturing
center between China and Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN).
The Beibu Bay economic zone, with 12.4 million population,
42,500 square kilometers of land, covers nearly 130,000 square
kilometers of sea waters and 1,595 kilometers of coastline.
In China's coastal regions, most economic activities are
centered around three economic regions, the Pearl River Delta
Region, the Yangtze River Delta Region, and the Bohai-ring Economic
Zone. Economic activities in the Beibu Bay area are relatively
backward.
"China's coastal economic zones have assembled as a ring with
establishment of the Beibu Bay economic zone ", said Ma, noting
that the Beibu Bay economic zone will not only boost regional
economic development, but also lay a solid base for economic
cooperation with its surrounding areas.
The country's 11th five-year program for Western Development has
placed the Beibu Bay economic zone as one of the three economic
development zones in the west which enjoy priority in economic
development.
(Xinhua News Agency February 21, 2008)
