Stories of High-Quality Development | Guangxi transforms business environment: From open to smooth, fast to beneficial

Malaysian Musang King durians, Singaporean bak kut teh, Filipino coconut water and Vietnamese coffee... Where can you find all these imported delicacies in one place? The answer is the China-ASEAN Mercantile Exchange in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

ASEAN is China's largest source of imported fruits, providing more than half of the premium varieties such as durians and mangosteens that Chinese consumers crave — all flowing through ports in Guangxi. At the same time, Guangxi holds the distinction of being China's leading fruit-producing region, cultivating an impressive array of nearly 300 different fruit varieties.

With the accelerated development of the New Western Land-Sea Corridor and expanding multimodal transport networks, more ASEAN fruits — including the prized Musang King durians — now reach Guangxi with unprecedented speed: just one day by land or four days by sea. This ensures consumers enjoy fresher flavors sooner, helping transform the concept of "ASEAN fruit freedom" into a delicious reality.

Capitalizing on the rich potential of fruit trade between China and ASEAN nations, the China-Singapore Nanning International Logistics Park has created an optimal environment for growth and business concentration. This has attracted numerous enterprises to establish operations in the park, leading to a win-win situation with mutual benefits for all parties involved.

Institutional openness is key to creating an open international business environment, according to local officials. This is shown in infrastructure and institutional innovation connectivity, ultimately realized through accelerated industry collaboration.

"Resolving bottlenecks, overcoming challenges and addressing pain points for foreign trade enterprises lies at the heart of our efforts to build a world-class business environment," said Zhong Zimin, deputy director of the Finance Bureau at the Guangxi Nanning Wuxiang New Area Planning and Construction Administration Committee.

To alleviate the concerns of foreign trade companies, Wuxiang New Area partnered with the Guangxi Financial Electronic Settlement Service Center to launch the China-ASEAN Cross-Border Trade Finance Interconnection Platform. This innovation has slashed settlement timeframes from three to five working days to same-day application processing.

Since its operation in September 2024, the platform has partnered with eight pilot banks, with total settlements exceeding 76 million yuan ($10.48 million). As a result, a financial nexus serving ASEAN trade is emerging.