A press conference on the development of the Guangxi Beibu Gulf Economic Zone is held in Nanning on July 23. [Photo by Li Xin/gxnews.com.cn]

From January to May of 2019, the financial revenue of the six cities of the Guangxi Beibu Gulf Economic Zone was 70.87 billion yuan ($10.31 billion), an increase of 8.2 percent year-on-year, according to a press conference held in Nanning on July 23.

The financial growth rate of the six cities of the Beibu Gulf Economic Zone in the first five months of this year was 2.2 percent higher than that in Guangxi, accounting for 55.14 percent of the whole autonomous region.

The Beibu Gulf Economic Zone has become a leader of Guangxi's economic development and an emerging zone for China's coastal development. Since its development in 2006, the main economic indicators of the Beibu Gulf Economic Zone have doubled. In 2018, the Beibu Gulf Economic Zone achieved a regional GDP of 986.09 billion yuan, accounting for 48 percent of the total GDP of Guangxi.

From 2006 to 2018, the GDP of the Beibu Gulf Economic Zone's six cities increased by nearly four times, with an average annual growth rate of 14.1 percent. Fiscal revenue increased by five times, fixed asset investment increased by 10 times, and total import and export increased by 11 times. The cargo throughput of the Beibu Gulf ports exceeded 240 million tons, an increase of nearly four times, and the container throughput exceeded 2.9 million TEUs, an increase of nearly 13 times.

In the future, the Beibu Gulf Economic Zone will focus on the construction of the Land-Sea Trade Corridor in the west to promote the integrated development of the Beibu Gulf ports. It will also promote the integration of Beihai, Qinzhou, and Fangchenggang to accelerate the development of the coastal areas, as well as take Nanning as the center to further advance the coordinated development of the Beibu Gulf Economic Zone.