Customs officers on Wednesday inspect the second-hand cars to be shipped abroad from the Nanshan Pilot Free Trade Zone in Guangzhou, Guangdong provincial capital. [Photo by Yin Shoubai]

Nine second-hand cars valued at 1.1 million yuan ($160,583) in the Nanshan Pilot Free Trade Zone in Guangzhou, Guangdong provincial capital, are bound for Cambodia after getting the green light from local customs.

The cars owned by a local car dealership will be shipped to Cambodia after the company signed a foreign trade deal with the Southeast Asian nation earlier this year, according to a statement released by Guangzhou Customs on Wednesday.

The cars passed quality inspections at a station in the Guangzhou-based South China University of Engineering on July 11, said the statement.

"It is the first time that second-hand cars from Guangdong, window of China's reform and opening-up and one of the economic powerhouses in the country, will be sold abroad" said the statement.

The cars, including three SUVs and six sedans, are part of the first group of second-hand cars, totaling 300 vehicles valued at $2.5 million, from Guangdong that will be sold abroad, said the statement.

Guangdong is expected to sell about 3,000 second-hand vehicles abroad this year, the statement said.

The cars' destinations include Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Russia and countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, said the statement.

A second-hand car to be sold to Cambodia is driven into a container at a pier in Nanshan Pilot Free Trade Zone in Guangzhou, Guangdong provincial capital, on Wednesday. [Photo by Mai Donghao]