Guangxi enjoys tighting business ties with neighbors
Updated: 2007-12-24 17:33
In a rapidly developing country, quiet little towns sometimes wake to find themselves circled and marked with a gold star on maps in the offices of prospectors, developers or investors.
Once-obscure coastal cities in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, facing the Beibu Gulf, today have their names highlighted. Part of the attention is due to their own efforts to improve ports and inland infrastructure, but it's mostly a result of the map itself.
They are the closest - and will likely one day be the gateway - to the markets and resources of Southeast Asia.
One of them is Fangchenggang, a city that lacked any notable economic activity over the last century other than occasional barter trade across the bay with Vietnam.
As both China and Vietnam increase business capacity, Fangchenggang - along with Beihai and Qinzhou, two other port cities in South China's Guangxi region - has become increasingly alluring to investors.
Nanning, the regional capital not far from the ports, is now also seeing interest in more than its history and tourist attractions.
The seemingly sudden interest is the result of a program called Pan-Beibu Gulf Sub-regional Economic Cooperation (PBGSEC), launched in 2006 as a joint effort by three provinces in South China - Guangxi, Guangdong and Yunnan - and the six Southeast Asian nations of Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Brunei.
PBGSEC aims to boost business among its partners by smoothing sea transportation, strengthening road and railway networks, and removing trade barriers through tariff cuts and more efficient Customs clearance.
One of the people who well know the increasing interest in Fangchenggang is Lei Tao, director of the city's municipal investment service. Showing businessmen around town is now his full-time job.
"Every day I show them our industrial parks and other areas suitable for development, and explain to them the advantages that we are willing to offer," Lei says. "Sometimes on a single day there are four and even five investor tours.
"Seeing the way people look around and comment on what we have to offer, I feel a pride and satisfaction I have never had in doing other things," he says.
Fangchenggang is the first stop in a rush to the southwestern coast, attracting real estate and industrial investors from other coastal cities where labor and land costs are in a seemingly unstoppable spiral.
Business Asia to Asia
Development experts in Beijing say that the falling value of the US dollar and rising European trade mean business ties between East, Southeast and South Asia, along with Australia, are likely to be strengthened in the next year and beyond.
Few places are as geographically blessed as Guangxi to connect China by sea with those destinations. Investors have already started large projects in Guangxi to use resources, including oil and iron ore, shipped from Asian suppliers.
Guangxi is also expanding its processing efforts and selling products to its neighbors in Southeast Asian markets.
None of the Guangxi cities are yet strong in manufacturing and services. But when the infrastructure is in place and large industries lead the way, its relatively low costs could be attractive to new investors, big and small.
Guangxi did have big capital inflows in 2006 and 2007. Fangchenggang received 4.85 billion yuan from 55 investment projects in 2006, an increase of more than 20 percent year-on-year. Between January and October this year another 7.42 billion yuan was committed by investors.
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