ASEAN business opportunities

Over the past six years, the Guangxi Pilot Free Trade Zone has closely adhered to the main line of opening up to ASEAN, with a focus on institutional-level opening-up. It has continuously deepened reform and innovation in areas such as cross-border finance, digital economy, and cross-border e-commerce, and has established a modern industrial system that radiates to ASEAN and connects domestic and international markets. It has become a powerful driving force for promoting the construction of regional economic integration in China-ASEAN.

Innovation-driven to build a hub and facilitate the flow of funds in ASEAN

The Nanning area of the Guangxi Pilot Free Trade Zone, as a financial opening gateway facing ASEAN, has achieved remarkable results in its construction. According to the data, from January to July this year, the cross-border RMB settlement volume in the Nanning area reached 19.252 billion yuan, up by 39.86% year-on-year. Since its establishment, the cross-border RMB settlement volume has reached a cumulative total of 66.112 billion yuan. At the same time, the capital aggregation effect of the China-ASEAN Financial City located in the Nanning area has also continued to stand out. As of July this year, a total of 578 financial institutions (entities) have been registered, which is 27.3 times that of the end of 2018. The cumulative tax revenue of the registered financial institutions has exceeded 10 billion yuan.

Foreign trade enterprises no longer need to visit banks. They can directly handle online through the "One Window for All Services" platform of Guangxi's Digital Government Affairs Integration System. From filling out forms, transmitting materials to completing the process, the entire process takes less than 30 minutes... On the China-ASEAN Cross-border Trade Financial Interconnection Platform (hereinafter referred to as the "Trade Finance Platform") of the Guangxi Financial Electronic Settlement Service Center, the convenient financial services have enabled many enterprises to enjoy tangible benefits.

"In January this year, one of our clients completed the online registration of the enterprise directory for goods trade through the 'Trade Finance Platform'. This greatly simplified the process and procedures for the registration of import and export goods trading enterprises, improving the efficiency of bank financial services," said a relevant person from the Transaction Banking Department of Guangxi Beibu Gulf Bank. Since its launch, the "Trade Finance Platform" has assisted banks in reviewing over 100 cross-border payment transactions, with a total amount exceeding 70 million yuan.

Empowering the System Sets a Benchmark and Activates the ASEAN Data Flow

Recently, the Guangxi Pilot Free Trade Zone has taken an important step in the field of cross-border data management, officially releasing the "Data Export Management List (Negative List) for China (Guangxi) Pilot Free Trade Zone (2025 Edition)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Negative List").

This Negative List will focus on four core areas: geographic information and meteorological data services, enterprise credit information services, live-streaming cross-border e-commerce, and overseas audio and video production and dissemination. Its core purpose is to clearly define the rules and boundaries of data export activities, focusing on addressing the compliance risks that enterprises encounter in external exchanges and international cooperation due to unclear data export policies, and providing enterprises with practical institutional guarantees and operational guidelines.

The efficient realization of data export overseas cannot be separated from the support of hardware infrastructure. It is understood that Guangxi has 12 cross-border land cables connecting to ASEAN countries such as Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar, and the total capacity of the international communication channels opened exceeds 9000GB. On one hand, Guangxi continuously expands the land cable system connecting to ASEAN; on the other hand, it actively participates in the construction of an international data major channel for ASEAN under the牵引of the Western Land-Sea New Channel. It is expected that the Nanning International Communication Business Entrance and Exit Bureau will be put into operation by the end of this year， enabling data to be directly transmitted from Nanning， Guangxi to ASEAN countries， significantly reducing the transmission distance and lowering communication costs. Taking the data transmission from Nanning to Hanoi， Vietnam as an example， the latency will be reduced from the current 107 milliseconds to 18 milliseconds， increasing the speed by nearly 5 times， promoting the development of cross-border e-commerce， live-streaming， and financial cooperation businesses between China and Vietnam.

In addition to hardware support， multiple key projects have been put into operation and provide services to ASEAN. China East Information Lanmei Cloud Computing Center has completed the deployment of a private cloud and provided cloud services to Chinese-funded enterprises in Laos； Nanning Twenty-First Century Company has built "Nanning No.1" and "Nanning No.2" satellites， forming a "dual-star" system， which is put into use to provide services to ASEAN and the southwestern region； East Information Company has created the "China-ASEAN Cross-border Credit Information Service Platform"， becoming the only one in Guangxi to be included in the first batch of digital China construction cases by the National Data Bureau.

At the same time， in accordance with the principle of "one place issuing， multiple places applying" of the Negative List by the Cyberspace Administration of China， combined with the Negative Lists previously issued by the free trade zones in Beijing and Shanghai， the Guangxi Pilot Free Trade Zone has now formed a data export management system covering 19 key industries， enabling enterprises to achieve convenient cross-border data flow through the Guangxi Pilot Free Trade Zone.

Taking advantage of its coastal and border locations, the various zones of the Guangxi Pilot Free Trade Zone have joined forces to accelerate the establishment of a cross-border e-commerce hub that radiates to ASEAN.Joint Efforts to Build a Hub for ASEAN Trade

 According to data, from January to June 2025, the cross-border e-commerce import and export volume of the Guangxi Pilot Free Trade Zone reached 13.25 billion yuan, an increase of 33. In addition, to support the development of cross-border e-commerce, the Pingxiang Bonded Zone has built the Chongzuo Cross-border E-commerce Public Clearance Center for the Guangxi Pilot Free Trade Zone in the Chongzuo Area. The three cross-border e-commerce sorting lines operate 24/7, capable of handling 1 million cross-border e-commerce deliveries per day.