Nanning train station. Photo: Wikimedia CommonsThe Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region have rolled out a plan to build a China-ASEAN Digital Trade Centre for boosting regional digital economic cooperation.
Headquartered in Nanning, capital of Guangxi, the centre is designated as a digital economy development park with office buildings, digital creative industries, platform operations, big data, the internet of things, among other facilities.
The project is also important for the construction of the ASEAN-China information harbour.
The Guangxi government said that the centre will be built in two phases. By the end of 2021, 5 billion CNY (about 724 million USD) will be invested in the centre, allowing it to accommodate 4,000 enterprises, with at least five warehouses and exhibition centres built in ASEAN countries.
Between 2022 and 2025, another 20 billion CNY will be invested, allowing the centre to accommodate more than 10,000 digital-trade market entities, 10 of which will each have a turnover of more than 1 billion CNY, while another 100 will have a turnover of more than 100 million CNY each.
Li Changguan, chairman of the Guangxi committee of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said that China and ASEAN countries are highly complementary in the field of digital economy and have great potential for cooperation.
The establishment of the center can better serve economic and trade cooperation between the two sides in the future, he said./.