Chongzuo: City of Border Trade

Chongzuo: City of Border Trade

Chongzuo, the youngest prefecture-level city in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, governs Jiangzhou District and five counties including Fusui, Daxin, Tiandeng, Longzhou and Ningming, and administrates Pingxiang city. With a borderline of 533 kilometers and an area of 17,440 square meters, it has 3 national fi rst-class ports, 4 second-class ports and 13 border trade areas.

Redwood Industry on the Rise

When the first China-Vietnam (Pingxiang) Commodity Trade Fair was held in 1992, several Vietnamese merchants came with their redwood furniture and art craft, looking for business opportunities. Since then, redwood trade began to rise in Pingxiang. After 20 years’ development, redwood industry has become one of the four priority industries in Chongzuo, and begun to take an important position in China’s redwood market.

China-ASEAN (Pingxiang) International Redwood Plaza

In order to support the development of redwood industry, several projects such as the China-ASEAN (Pingxiang) International Redwood Plaza and Pingxiang Nanshan Redwood Culture City have been launched. Also, the Pingxiang government unveiled a document in 2012 to back the development of redwood culture industries, giving preferential policies to those redwood enterprises investing in Pingxiang in brand establishment, finance and taxation, land utilization, talent introduction, and product promotion etc.

In addition, Pingxiang has promoted the construction of redwood trade center, redwood testing center, redwood processing base, redwood culture exhibition and product sales market, forming an industrial chain of “raw material and semi-finished product – import trade – self-owned design and deep-processing – sales and service”.

Capital of “Sugar” and“Manganese”

COFCO Tunhe Chongzuo Sugar Co., Ltd.

Friendship Pass, Pingxiang

Chongzuo, which is rich in natural resources, is praised as Capital of “Sugar” and “Manganese”. It is China’s largest sugarcane cultivation and cane sugar production base. Its annual sugarcane yield exceeds 16 million tons, while its annual output of cane sugar reached 2.36 million tons in 2012, accounting for one fi fth of that of the whole nation, and one third of that of Guangxi. Also, the city is abundant in over 30 minerals, among which manganese and bentonite rank the top nationwide, and even worldwide.

Relying on these natural resources, as well as Chongzuo’s regional advantages, the China-Thailand (Chongzuo) Industrial Park was established in the northeastern area of the city in 2012. The park, with sugar industry, manganese and aluminum industry, and electromechanical industry as its leading industries, plans to build itself into the largest sugar processing base nationwide, and a key industrial park in the Beibu Gulf Economic Zone. According to its long-term planning, the park intends to house over 500 enterprises and realize an overall output of over 300 billion yuan.

City of Border Trade

With a land borderline of 533 kilometers, which occupies more than half of that of Guangxi, Chongzuo is very active in border trade, known as “City of Border Trade”. At present, it has formed six trade distributing centers concerning redwood furniture, hardware & mechanical and electrical products, textile & garment, fruits & vegetables, herbs and minerals, radiating to the whole nation, as well as Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand etc.

Puzhai (Pingxiang), the largest port on the China-Vietnam border, has developed into a multi-functional modern border trade city integrating wholesale & logistics, storage, and exhibition & entertainment. It has become China’s largest fruit and redwood trade market towards ASEAN. The Chinese herbal medicine market in Aidian (Ningming) is also the largest one connecting Guangxi and ASEAN. By taking the advantage of the Nanning-Chongzuo Economic Belt, Shuikou has become one of the fast-developed land ports, which enjoys the largest circulation of goods. The Guangxi Pingxiang Integrated Free Trade Zone, the first bonded area set up on the land border of China, is an international economic cooperation zone integrating land ports, bonded logistics, bonded processing and worldwide distribution etc.

A Choice Destination for Investment

Geologically, Chongzuo faces Southeast Asia and is back by China’s southwestern region. It shares border with Vietnam and is close to the sea, serving as an important city in the “Two Corridors and One Circle”and the China-Singapore Economic Corridor. Coupled with the advantage of convenient transportation, it will become the most convenient and effi cient land access to ASEAN.

In natural resources, the city abounds in agricultural and mineral resources, as well as tourism resources. Crowned as a “Green Treasures House”, it produces sugar cane, sisal, rosin, subtropical fruit, anise, chili, and broadleaf holly leaf, all of which carry weight in Guangxi and even the whole nation. Its manganese ore reserve, with an amount of 165 million tons, ranks the fi rst in China. Its bauxite reserve reaches 130 million tons, and its bentonite reserve ranks the fi rst in the world.

As far as policy advantage is concerned, Chongzuo enjoys the preferential policies of China’s Western Development, China’s border trade policies, China’s preferential policies for minority areas, China’s policies for the Beibu Gulf Economic Zone, as well as multiple preferential policies released to support the bonded area. It also benefi ts from the nation’s major policies and measures to back the development of Guangxi.