Coastal city hopes to share upcoming opportunities for economic expansion with several Southeast Asian neighbors, Zhou Mo reports.

Zhanjiang, in southwestern Guangdong province, is making efforts to play a bigger role in the Belt and Road Initiative by creating a favorable environment for trade and exchanges between the city and members of Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

More international flights and container routes are expected to open to facilitate economic and trade cooperation as well as cultural exchanges between the two sides. The city is planning to open flights to Phnom Penh and Ho Chi Minh City.

Relocation of the Zhanjiang airport is currently under way, with a total investment of 4.72 billion yuan ($684 million). The new international airport is expected to come into operation by 2019.

At present, the city's airport has more than 20 flights to major cities on the Chinese mainland and flights to Hong Kong.

Last year, passenger throughput at the airport reached 1.55 million, growing 29 percent year-on-year.

Zhanjiang is also pushing forward construction of China-Indonesia and China-Thailand industrial parks in a move to create a platform for cooperation with Belt and Road countries and regions.

A coastal city in the southwestern part of Guangdong province, Zhanjiang possesses several advantages in becoming a pioneer in the initiative, city officials said.

It is geographically not far from the ASEAN countries of Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines and is an important gateway to Southeast Asia.

It is also a major transportation and logistics hub in the construction of the upgraded China-ASEAN Free Trade Area.

The city has a solid foundation in technological innovation, with its South China Valley being listed as one of Guangdong's key high-tech development projects.

The innovation base was established to offer public services, promote technological innovation, commercialization of technological achievements, sharing of resources and e-commerce and serve as an incubator for entrepreneurship.

Because of these factors, Zhanjiang can exert a strong impact on countries and regions along the Belt and Road, officials said.

The Belt and Road Initiative, which refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, was announced by President Xi Jinping in 2013, with the aim of strengthening international cooperation.

Trade between Zhanjiang and regions along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road amounted to 9.04 billion yuan last year, growing 6.1 percent from the previous year, according to official statistics.

Exports and imports between Zhanjiang and ASEAN countries accounted for 57.7 percent of the city's total trade with Belt and Road regions last year, or 5.21 billion yuan, rising 5.5 percent from a year earlier.

Last year, 4.12 billion yuan worth of goods were exported from Zhanjiang to ASEAN member countries, rising 26.9 percent year-on-year. ASEAN countries have surpassed the United States to become the city's largest export market.

Officials said the city will expand and deepen cooperation with ASEAN members in a range of fields including modern agriculture, services, advanced manufacturing, infrastructure, port development, urban construction, tourism, science and technology, culture and education.

The city will also strive to attract more investment from enterprises in ASEAN countries in key industries to help upgrade and transform its industrial structure.

For example, efforts will be made to attract Singaporean enterprises in electronic information and petrochemical industries and Malaysian enterprises in automobiles, electronics and machine manufacturing to invest in the city.

Through these efforts, Zhanjiang hopes to increase its total annual export and import amount to $60 billion by the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20) and raise its ports' cargo throughput to 350 million metric tons and container throughput to 1.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units within the next three years, officials said.

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