China Economic Times reporter Wang Caina

The ocean is a treasure house of resources to support future development and a strategic location for high-quality development. "One bay wins over eleven countries, and interacts with the east, middle and west in a benign manner." Guangxi is the only coastal province in western my country. It has more than 1,600 kilometers of continental coastline, about 40,000 square kilometers of sea areas, more than 600 islands, and more than 10 harbors. It develops a maritime economy and achieves a strong sea chart, with unique advantages.

"Vigorously developing the maritime economy is a strategic choice for Guangxi's high-quality development. The maritime economy involves the growth of maritime industries, construction of sea channels, marine scientific and technological innovation, opening up to the sea, and the construction of beautiful bays. Among them, the sea opening is an important path for Guangxi to develop marine resources more efficiently and move towards a deep blue more conveniently." Li Shize, a special professor of the lecturer group of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Party Committee and director of the Regional Economic Research Department of the Development Research Center of the Autonomous Region People's Government, said in an exclusive interview with a reporter from China Economic Times that Guangxi should thoroughly implement the important requirements of General Secretary Xi Jinping's discourse on Guangxi's work, focus on the needs of the country and what Guangxi can, pay more attention to win-win cooperation, highlight the linkage of the entire region to the sea and land-sea, highlight internal and external connections, and docking with ASEAN, and promote opening up to the sea with greater efforts, and better transform unique location advantages into open development advantages.

Opening to the sea has become the "blue engine" leading Guangxi's high-quality development

China Economic Times: Guangxi is the frontier and window for my country's opening up to ASEAN, with unique advantages and good foundation for opening up to the sea. In your opinion, what important achievements has Guangxi achieved in recent years to strengthen the sea chart and open development?

Li Shize: The ocean is a strategic location for high-quality development. The coastline of Guangxi is 1628.6 kilometers long, with a sea area of ​​about 40,000 square kilometers, 643 islands, rich marine resources, and huge potential for sea development. In recent years, Guangxi has thoroughly implemented the important requirements of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s discourse on Guangxi’s work, implemented the sea-to-sea development strategy in all aspects, and the opening pattern to the sea has become increasingly perfect, and the construction of a strong marine area has taken solid steps. According to the data provided by the "Guangxi Sea Economic Development Index Report (2025)", from 2017 to 2024, the open cooperation index grew from 9.02 to 25.38, with an average annual growth rate of 15.93%, ranking first among the six first-level indicators of economic scale, marine industry, sea channel, scientific and technological innovation, open cooperation, and ecological environment.

Guangxi fully utilizes the unique location advantage of "one bay wins over 11 countries, benign interaction between the east, middle and west", and relies on the Western Land-Sea New Channel, a major traction platform, to continue to expand domestic and foreign opening up, openness to the sea and cooperation to expand in depth, and toward the deep blue from dreams to reality. Strengthen cooperation with ASEAN countries in the fields of marine resource survey, marine ecological protection, marine early warning and forecasting, and actively promote the "going out" of advantageous enterprises in the fields of digital economy, automobile machinery, mineral resources, agriculture and fishery, and help build a closer China-ASEAN marine community with a shared future. Deepen cooperation with UNESCO in the field of marine space planning in the Western Pacific region, Qinzhou City has been recognized as the United Nations "Decade of Oceans" Marine Space Planning Project Demonstration Zone. Explore the joint construction of a platform for exchanges and cooperation in marine industry enterprises, and gather more than 100 companies to establish the Guangxi-ASEAN Marine Industry Development Alliance. Promote the establishment of Guangxi (Shanghai, Shenzhen) Industrial Cooperation Center and build an important platform to actively connect with major national strategies such as the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Taking over port-side industrial projects such as petrochemical, wind power generation, photovoltaic, and high-end equipment manufacturing transferred to developed coastal areas, Qinzhou Petrochemical Industrial Park has become the first professional chemical park of 100 billion yuan in the southwest region, and Fangchenggang Economic Development Zone has become the first industrial park with an annual output value of over 200 billion yuan in the region.

Pay more attention to win-win cooperation and promote new breakthroughs in Guangxi's opening up to the sea

China Economic Times: Guangxi's opening to the sea has solid results, which has greatly improved the "gold content" of the development to the sea. Looking to the future, how should Guangxi be based on reality, further promote opening up to the sea, and then drive Guangxi's high-quality development?

Li Shize: At present, Guangxi is in a critical stage of taking shape. Multiple opportunities are superimposed, and breakthroughs are in sight. With the increasing emphasis on Guangxi's position in the overall national development and the in-depth promotion of building a convenient place for domestic and international dual circulation market operations, Guangxi has great potential and broad prospects to promote opening up to the sea. Guangxi can continue to make efforts in the following four aspects, strive to promote opening up to the sea to a new level, and inject strong momentum into high-quality development.

First, we must expand the space for international cooperation in maritime economy. Take ports as the fulcrum of overseas industrial layout and the node of overseas markets, strengthen the coordinated development and connection of key ports in ASEAN countries such as Singapore Port, Malaysia's Kuantan Port, Brunei Morala Port, and Vietnam Haipang Port, expand the service capabilities of cooperative ports to the deep hinterland, and promote the full-process service of "factory-port-ship" services. Promote more ASEAN ports to join the China-ASEAN port city cooperation network and jointly build an overseas cargo collection and distribution distribution network. Seize the opportunity of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Zone version 3.0, actively promote strong and excellent enterprises in the fields of infrastructure, digital economy, automobiles, machinery, agriculture and fishery to "go global" to carry out overseas investment, and build an overseas marketing network. Guide and support enterprises to establish long-term, efficient and stable raw material industry bases in countries with resource advantages such as Brazil. Strengthen international marine fishery cooperation and focus on building a comprehensive fishery base integrating fishing, breeding, processing, transportation and sales in the ASEAN region. Accelerate the construction of the Beibu Gulf International Cruise Home Port, open ASEAN boutique cruise tourism routes, and jointly create a cruise tourism circle around the Beibu Gulf with Vietnam. Explore the promotion of cross-border cooperation with the "overseas enclave" model, support enterprises in Guangxi to "go overseas together", set up overseas production bases, strengthen connection with small and medium-sized enterprises in Guangxi, and form a pattern of leading small and supporting industries with large and supporting industries.

Second, we must deepen the coordinated development of regional maritime economy. Accelerate the construction of the Pinglu Canal Economic Belt, strengthen cooperation with my country's eastern coastal areas, orderly undertake industrial gradient transfer, and build Guangxi into a key fulcrum for connecting with new industrial layouts in coastal developed regions. Actively carry out investment cooperation with important logistics node cities along the Western Land-Sea New Channel, expand the logistics layout of node areas, promote efficient connection between the Pinglu Canal and the Beibu Gulf International Gateway Port, build a "rail and sea river and sea" integrated transportation pattern of Beibu Gulf, and promote the export of non-ferrous metals, agricultural products, advanced equipment and other countries in western provinces such as Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan. Strengthen the linkage with the Chengdu-Chongqing Twin Cities Economic Circle, jointly build industrial parks such as automobiles and electronics, and jointly expand the ASEAN market. Actively explore and create a new "one-single" full-supply chain service model for the new western land-sea channel, and promote the quality and expansion of sea-rail intermodal trains. Deepen the docking and cooperation with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, focus on promoting in-depth cooperation in the fields of biomedicine, coastal tourism, and characteristic seafood processing, explore the "flying sea" model of scientific research and incubation in the Greater Bay Area, and the production and transformation backend in Guangxi, and jointly build a marine industrial park.

Third, we must improve the level of the platform for opening up cooperation to the sea. Give full play to the institutional innovation advantages of China (Guangxi) Free Trade Pilot Zone, take the development of the maritime economy as the focus of exploration of the differentiated construction of the free trade pilot zone, and innovate cooperation mechanisms in economic, trade, science and technology, culture, and ecology in the marine field. Promote the upgrading and development of the "two countries and two parks" in terms of spatial layout, industrial cooperation, service supporting facilities, etc., explore the new cooperation model of "two countries, two parks and multiple regions", and deeply tap the cooperation potential in the fields of artificial intelligence, high-end equipment manufacturing, green energy, etc. Support the accelerated construction of overseas parks such as the China-Indonesian Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone, the Malaysian-China Kuantan Industrial Park, and build an important platform for Chinese-funded enterprises to "go global". Promote cooperation between China-ASEAN Industrial Cooperation Zone and key industrial parks of ASEAN countries, and guide Guangxi's powerful enterprises to plan and build new overseas economic and trade cooperation zones. Relying on the China-ASEAN Expo, a blue economy exhibition area will be added to build a platform for enterprise technology exchange and trade negotiations, and leading enterprises in the maritime industry in ASEAN countries will participate in the exhibition, promote marine economic and trade cooperation, and create a new situation of cooperation and exchanges in the marine field.

Fourth, we must vigorously attract and strengthen the strong and excellent enterprises involved in the sea. Through measures such as policy support, industrial cultivation, scientific and technological innovation and talent introduction, we will better play the role of government guidance and market mechanisms, and promote the expansion and strengthening of maritime enterprises. Continue to deepen the promotion of investment promotion for "sea enterprises entering Guangxi", carry out accurate investment promotion for the industrial chain, hold regular investment promotion meetings for the sea economy, and improve the coordination and service mechanism for major projects related to sea. Focus on the settlement of the Fortune 500, China's Fortune 500 and industry-leading enterprises at a high level, vigorously introduce upstream and downstream supporting enterprises, and promote the construction of marine-related enterprise headquarters bases, R&D and innovation bases, talent training bases, supply chain management centers, etc. Give full play to the demonstration and leading role of strong and excellent enterprises in Guangxi through platforms such as business associations and enterprise alliances, and attract more enterprises in the same industry to settle in Guangxi.

Director-General Producer丨Wang Liejunche Haigang