General Information

Neighboring on the provinces of Guangdong in the east, Hubei in the north, and Yunnan and Guizhou in the southwest, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region links to Hong Kong and Macao by the waterway of the Xijiang River and shares a borderline of 637 kilometers in the west with Vietnam. That is why Guangxi is called "Facing the Southeast Asia with the Great Southwest of China at the back". Enjoying the advantages of location along the coast, river, and border, Guangxi has become a key hub in connecting the southeast coastal provinces with the southwest interior provinces and also the most convenient gateway for the southwest provinces to the sea.

GDP: 223.12 billion yuan (US$26.95 billion) in 2001.
 
GDP growth rate: 8.2 percent.

GDP ratio (1st, 2nd and tertiary industries): 24.9 : 36.6 : 38.5.

Revenues: 17.71 billion yuan (US$2.14 billion) in 2001.

Economy

Industry:  The industrial sector in Guangxi has developed from having only 109 manual workshops in the early 1950s to current establishment of a complete system covering coal, electric power, chemicals, medicine, light industry, textile, metallurgy, nonferrous metals, machinery, automobile, sugar refining, building materials, rubber, electronics and foodstuff.

The total industrial added value of the province reached 67.12 billion yuan (US$8.11 billion) in 2001. Of the figure, 33.91 billion yuan (US$4.1 billion) were contributed by state-owned industrial enterprises and non-state industrial enterprises with annual sales income topping 5 million yuan.

Structural readjustment of the industrial sector goes in depth. Comparing with the previous year, the output value of the transportation equipment manufacturing industry increased by 20.8 percent; chemical raw materials and chemical products manufacturing industry increased by 17.4 percent; and the pharmaceutical industry increased by 22.6 percent.

Hi-tech industries have accelerated their pace of development, with the output value of three hi-tech development zones in Nanning, Guilin and Liuzhou in 2001 being 31 percent up from the previous year. The production of electronic components, optical instruments and semi-conductor integrated circuit in 2001 grew by 66 percent, 68 percent and 140 percent respectively compared with the previous year.

Agriculture:  In 2001, the total output value of farming, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery reached 87.29 billion yuan (US$10.54 billion), up 4.9 percent from the previous year.

Affected by floods, the grain production reduced by 3.6 percent compared to the previous year to stand at 16.07 million tons. But the production of fruits, vegetables, teas, flue-cured tobacco, and silkworm cocoon increased by 12.8 percent, 6 percent, 5.4 percent, 7.7 percent and 89.5 percent respectively. The per capita annual net income of peasants amounted to 1944 yuan (US$235), up 4.3 percent.

Pillar Industries:

(1) Power industry with the hydropower as the mainstay;

(2) Nonferrous metal industry;

(3) Building materials industry (cement, plate glass, ceramic, granite and marble); and

(4) Machinery industry (automobile, internal-combustion engine, engineering machines, agricultural machines, electric devices, petrochemical equipment, heavy-duty machines for mining, packaging equipment, equipment for sugar producing, power-generating equipment).

Transportation:

Communication in Guangxi is very convenient. There are 5 airports with flights connecting 109 destinations at home and abroad, 5 key sea and river ports, 20 berths of over 10,000 tons level. The total handling capacity is more than 47.9 million tons. The railway runs through everywhere and reaches directly to the seaports and Hanoi, Vietnam. The highway stretches about 51,000 kilometers with expressway covering 3,400 kilometers, which connects every town and county in Guangxi.

Railways: By the end of 1999, the total rail line on operation had stretched to 3,120 km.

Highways: By the end of 1999, the total highways open to traffic were as long as 51,378 km.

Waterways: Guangxi has a coastline stretching for 1,595km, along which 21 ports have been established, including 18 large-capacity and deep-water berths. Fangcheng, Beihai and Qinzhou ports have an annual handling capacity of 12.56 million tons of goods each. Guangxi is believed to be the best place in south China to do sea transportation because of its geographical location.

Airports: Guangxi has five airports respectively in Nanning, Guilin, Beihai, Liuzhou and Wuzhou. Twenty-three airliners are operating 109 air routes (including 99 domestic, five regional and five international ones).

Editor: Donald