Guangxi to invest over $100b in sea transportation network

From 2020 to 2022, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region will invest more than 670 billion yuan ($100.35 billion) to strengthen the integration of land-sea transportation resources and expand the sea transportation network, the Guangxi Transportation Department announced on Nov 2.

The focus will be on building the Beibu Gulf International Gateway Port for the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor in Western China, accelerating the construction of high-speed and large-capacity railways and highways to the sea, opening up key nodes connecting rivers and seas, as well as speeding up the construction of civil airports to form an integrated land, sea, and air transportation network.

In terms of land-sea channel construction, Guangxi plans to implement 29 major infrastructure projects for the land-sea land channel by 2022, with a total investment of 441.4 billion yuan.

Guangxi will accelerate the construction of key waterways and navigation facilities, connect the Xijiang shipping trunk line with the Beibu Gulf ports, as well as form a new channel connecting the river to the sea.

The capacity of deep-water channels of the Beibu Gulf ports will be increased. Construction of entry channel projects in Fangchenggang Port and Beihai Port Tieshan Port Area will be carried out, while construction of logistics infrastructure of coastal logistics hubs and intermodal logistics centers will be promoted.

The region will promote construction of infrastructure connecting airports with the sea transportation network, focusing on expansion projects of Nanning Airport, Beihai Airport, and Fangchenggang Airport.

The person in charge of the Guangxi Transportation Department said that in the future, Guangxi will: open more direct routes from Beibu Gulf ports to Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia, and ASEAN countries; open up new routes to Europe, America, and Africa; optimize daily routes to Hong Kong; add liners to Singapore; and operate normal liners to Chongqing, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Gansu, as well as other provinces and cities in China.

According to the official document issued by the Guangxi government, by 2022, the total volume of Guangxi's transportation will increase by 8 percent annually, while the cargo throughput of coastal ports will exceed 400 million tons, with an average annual growth rate of more than 15 percent. It will strive to achieve a container throughput of 7 million TEUs, with an average annual growth rate of more than 20 percent, and the sea-rail combined transport container transportation volume will exceed 350,000 TEUs.