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)