Xi’s Guangxi visit invigorates Belt, Road vision
President encourages more ports in coastal areas to plant seeds of success
President Xi Jinping’s inspection tour of South China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region last month has invigorated the vision for the development of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, local officials and entrepreneurs said.
Xi, who also serves as general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, promised vigorous efforts to promote the maritime Silk Road, and to advance opening-up under the Belt and Road Initiative, while visiting Tieshan Port in Beihai, Guangxi, on April 19.
He Xiaolong, executive deputy director of the port’s Industrial Zone Management Committee, told China Daily that the president’s inspection of the port has great significance for its strategic development.
“President Xi has encouraged us to write a new chapter for the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. For us it means that we should innovate with modern port logistics,” he said, adding that the port will establish a new platform for industrial cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Tieshan Port, a connection point for more than 240 maritime trade routes, including 26 to foreign countries, is an important hub for Southeast Asia.
The Belt and Road Initiative has “added wings to the industrial development” of Tieshan Port, He said, noting that it has led to numerous companies in industries such as petrochemi- cal and new materials to settle in the industrial park in Beihai.
The Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, collectively known as the Belt and Road Initiative, was put forward by Xi in 2013. The initiative aims to expand