City located in key spot to promote opening-up and high-quality economic development

By Hao Nan | China Daily | Updated: 2019-05-25 06:13

South China's Fangchenggang city is set to receive a boost from hosting the forthcoming International Medical Innovation and Cooperation Forum, a senior official said.

Members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will gather at the forum, which is aimed at supporting the Belt and Road Initiative, promoting the construction of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, serving China's diplomatic relations, as well as promoting high-quality economic development and high-level opening-up, according to Assistant Foreign Minister Zhang Hanhui.

"The forum will also contribute toward the construction of a biomedical industrial park aided by supporting policies in a national medical pilot zone," Zhang said.

In the zone, "overseas drugs and medical equipment will enjoy very low tariffs or even no duty at all, and will be used directly without repeated clinical trials that usually take two to three years," Zhang said.

"Hospitals will also be established in the zone to boost related industries and services in the city."

Located near the Beibu Gulf in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Fangchenggang is the only city in China that connects with ASEAN via sea, land and river.

It also serves as a crucial node along the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor.

City located in key spot to promote opening-up and high-quality economic development

The city has five national ports, of which Dongxing Port is the country's largest land border port bordering Vietnam.

The prefecture-level city also boasts Fangcheng Harbor, the largest of its kind in western China, which has trade and transport connections with more than 190 countries and regions. The harbor handled over 100 million metric tons of cargo in 2012 and is now building itself into a China-ASEAN international shipping hub and logistics center. Fangchenggang enjoys multiple preferential policies aimed at investment.

The city was approved to pilot new open economy systems in 2016 and became a national cross-border tourism experimental zone in 2018.

Currently, it is pushing forward the building of a development zone in Dongxing, a county-level city of Fangchenggang, as well as a comprehensive border financial reform pilot zone.

The city has achieved excellent results in sectors such as individual cross-border renminbi trade settlement and cross-border labor service.

It also boasts many national firsts, including the first ASEAN currency service platform, the first sea-land cold chain logistics channel to Southeast Asia and the first cross-border insurance service center.

With a coastline stretching 580 kilometers and a vast hinterland, Fangchenggang has attracted investment from several Fortune Global 500 enterprises in the fields of iron, steel, energy, nonferrous metals, and grain and oil processing.

The first nuclear power station in West China helps to power the city, which is also China's largest vegetable oil seed processing base, and the largest phosphoric acid processing and export base.