(Vibrant China Research) Jianghai Unicom reshapes the freight pattern in Southwest China Guangxi Tuoxindao links ASEAN

China News Service, Nanning, October 12 (Yu Jing, Yang Chengchen, Zhai Liqiang, Li Jiawei) The 2026 "Vibrant China Research Trip" Guangxi-themed interview activity was launched in Nanning on the 12th. At the briefing held that day, heads of relevant departments and relevant experts introduced that Guangxi has relied on the construction of the New Land-Sea Corridor in the West and the navigation advantages of the Pinglu Canal to achieve continuous improvement in the level of interconnection and form a new development pattern with unique border and coastal characteristics.

"In the first half of this year, Guangxi's gross marine product was 137.7 billion yuan (RMB, the same below), a year-on-year increase of 6.8%; the GDP of 8 cities and 33 counties (cities, districts) in the Pinglu Canal Economic Belt key implementation area reached 712.629 billion yuan." Party composition of the Development and Reform Commission of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Lin Zenan, deputy director of the Port of Guangxi, introduced that Guangxi has built 65 channels out of the province and out to the sea. From January to August this year, Beibu Gulf Port's cargo throughput was 312 million tons and container throughput was 6.189 million TEUs. Guangxi's economic construction towards the sea has been accelerated in an all-round way, showing a development trend of land-sea linkage and the whole region moving to the sea.

Ding Jinxue, an expert at the Comprehensive Transportation Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission, pointed out that Guangxi is an important participant and contributor to the construction of the New Western Land-Sea Corridor, and is also a core dividend beneficiary. Over the years, the local area has built a four-in-one comprehensive interconnection network of "Land, Sea, and Sky Network", and the multimodal transport system is highly efficient and coordinated. It has become the most convenient core logistics channel for western China's goods to go out to sea and for China to connect with ASEAN. It has embarked on a sound development path of "channels bring logistics, logistics brings economy and trade, and economy and trade brings industry".

Now that the Pinglu Canal is open to navigation, it is reshaping the opening pattern of the southwest region. Ding Jinxue said that the Pinglu Canal will open a direct connection between the golden waterway of the Xijiang River and the international gateway port of the Beibu Gulf, break the bottleneck of the southwest inland to the nearest sea, greatly improve the transportation timeliness, reduce logistics costs, and promote the upgrade of the New Western Land-Sea Corridor from a single "traffic line" to an "economic network" with global linkage.

Deeply cultivating the ASEAN market is the core advantage of Guangxi’s external development. Wang Xinhong, full-time deputy director of the China (Guangxi) Pilot Free Trade Zone Office, introduced that ASEAN has remained Guangxi’s largest trading partner for 26 consecutive years, and Vietnam has remained Guangxi’s largest trading partner for 27 consecutive years. Guangxi has established economic and trade cooperation with many ASEAN countries. Mechanism, relying on unique location and policy advantages, the local area has created a characteristic cross-border trade link of "ASEAN production + Guangxi distribution + China's best-selling". More than one-third of domestic imported ASEAN fruits enter the country through Guangxi ports, continuing to consolidate close economic and trade ties with ASEAN.

Geng Zequn, an expert at the "Belt and Road" Economic and Trade Cooperation Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce Research Institute, believes that Guangxi is accelerating its transformation from a "channel hub" to an "open hub", relying on institutional innovation, platform linkage, and land and sea coordination to explore a new development path of land and sea linkage, two-way opening, and industry and trade integration in coastal areas.