Guangxi Issues 15th Five-Year Marine Economy Plan, Names 33 Counties as Pilot Areas for Pinglu Canal Belt

The General Office of the People's Government of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has issued the "15th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Guangxi's Marine Economy," which proposes building the Pinglu Canal Economic Belt. The plan designates 33 counties (cities, districts) along the coast, the Pinglu Canal, the Xijiang shipping trunk line, and the Zuojiang and Youjiang river valleys as pilot areas, with a focus on strengthening infrastructure connectivity and industrial coordination, and promoting the concentration of population, industry, and production factors in these areas. This is intended to form a main axis for sea-oriented development across the region, extend coordinated development to other areas, and comprehensively connect with ASEAN and Belt and Road partner countries, creating a "leaf-vein pattern" marine industry layout centered on agglomeration with outward radiation.

The plan also calls for accelerating the development of the Nanning metropolitan area, leveraging Nanning's core leading role as the regional capital, and empowering high-quality marine industry development through cross-border finance, the digital economy, and technology research and development, with the goal of building an international metropolis for open cooperation with ASEAN. At the same time, the plan promotes coordinated development among the Pinglu Canal Economic Belt, the Xijiang Sea-oriented Economic Belt, and the Beibu Gulf Coastal Economic Belt.