The initial year of the 15th Five-Year Plan period poses a significant question for border and ethnic regions: how to transform unique advantages into decisive strengths for high-quality development. For Chongzuo City, the answer lies in steadfastly building itself into a modern southern border gateway city that is open to cooperation with ASEAN. This is a strategic mission entrusted to Chongzuo by the nation, and it serves as the core lever for Chongzuo to contribute to Guangxi's development of "one zone, two bases, one park, and one corridor."
Chongzuo's advantage lies in its "border," its potential in "agriculture," and its distinctive feature in "metal new materials" – the "border" is the window for opening up, "agriculture" is the foundation of people's livelihoods, and "metal new materials" is the backbone of industry. Fully utilizing these advantages, deeply tapping their potential, and enhancing their distinctive features are key to Chongzuo's high-quality development.
Leveraging the "Border" Advantage: Transforming Open Corridors into Open High Ground
First, elevate the capacity and efficiency of ports to establish a new benchmark for smart border gates. Building on the foundation of smart port construction at sites like Friendship Pass and Pu Zhai, Chongzuo will continue to expand the application of artificial intelligence in customs clearance, using "AI+" to achieve further breakthroughs in clearance efficiency. It will strengthen cooperation with neighboring countries like Vietnam on "smart ports," deepen the "single declaration, single inspection, single release" customs clearance model, and drive clearance efficiency towards a higher-level "minute-grade" target, effectively using port capacity enhancement to drive a leap in the level of openness.
Second, expand processing of imported materials to cultivate new industries that enrich the border population. Chongzuo will grow and strengthen industries such as processing ASEAN-characteristic agricultural products, textiles and garments, and electronics, transforming "corridor traffic flow" into "industrial growth." It will also actively seek policy support for border residents' mutual trade, promote the legalization and standardization of models like "border residents' cooperatives + processing of imported materials," and improve mechanisms linking, driving, and enriching farmers. It will consolidate and upgrade a number of processing clusters for imported materials, improve supporting facilities in industrial parks, enabling more ASEAN raw materials to be processed locally for added value, achieving "retention of industrial tax revenue, retention of enterprise profits, and retention of employment for the people."
Third, deepen cultural and people-to-people exchanges to expand new areas of open cooperation. Leveraging the Sino-Vietnamese Detian (Ban Gioc) Waterfall Cross-border Tourism Cooperation Zone, Chongzuo will continue to enhance the "one ticket, two countries" cross-border tourism brand, promoting a shift from "transit tourism" to "in-depth tourism." Simultaneously, using platforms like the China-ASEAN Expo and the Sino-Vietnamese Border Tourism Festival, it will deepen exchanges and cooperation with ASEAN countries in education, culture, healthcare, and other fields, making Chongzuo an important window for ASEAN countries to understand and engage with China.
Deepening the "Agricultural" Potential: Building a Major Agricultural City into a Strong Agricultural City
First, strengthen technological empowerment to give traditional agriculture smart wings. Chongzuo will comprehensively promote smart agriculture models like "Digital Sugarcane Fields." Relying on the "Bianjiang Zhizhou" AI open platform, it will deepen the integration of AI and sugarcane cultivation, achieving real-time sensing of soil moisture and pests/diseases with intelligent decision-making, creating a demonstration model of smart agriculture for ASEAN. It will utilize platforms like the Guangxi Sugarcane Sugar Industry Technology Innovation Center to promote the industrialization of scientific and technological achievements in deep processing of sugarcane sugar, transitioning from "selling sugar" to "selling high-end materials."
Second, promote whole-chain upgrading to retain more value-added benefits locally. Adhering to an industrialization mindset to drive agriculture's integration with secondary and tertiary industries, Chongzuo will accelerate the formation of whole-industry-chain clusters for the deep processing of ten major agricultural products, including star anise oil vine, nuts, and star anise. It will also deepen the integration of agriculture, commerce, culture, and tourism, actively cultivating characteristic product series like "Guangxi Souvenirs," and promote the extension of agricultural products towards high-value-added directions such as health foods and biological products. It will consolidate and upgrade a number of agricultural product processing parks, cultivate a group of agricultural leading enterprises at or above the autonomous region level, aiming for a significant increase in the agricultural product processing conversion rate by the end of the 15th Five-Year Plan period.
Third, focus deeply on brand building to bring Chongzuo's quality products to the international market. Chongzuo will continue to deepen agricultural brand enhancement initiatives, concentrating efforts to strengthen regional public brands like "Chongzuo Nuts," "Chongzuo Star Anise Oil Vine," and "Chongzuo Sugar." It will establish and improve agricultural product quality traceability systems and actively organize enterprises to participate in exhibitions like the ASEAN Expo and the Guangxi Famous and Special Agricultural Products Fair, broadening integrated online and offline sales channels.
Strengthening the "Metal New Materials" Characteristic: Transforming Resource Advantages into Industrial Advantages
First, promote the development of industrial clusters to create a high ground for new materials industries. Building on the foundation of the "Copper, Manganese, Rare Earth New Materials and Circular Economy" industrial cluster, Chongzuo will continue to drive the copper and aluminum industries to extend towards deep processing directions like high-precision strip/foil and lightweight automotive materials. It will accelerate the transformation of the manganese industry towards new energy battery materials, promoting the experience of South Manganese Group Limited in "establishing mines through resources, strengthening mines through deep processing." Aligning with national and regional strategic layouts, it will persist in extending the rare earth industry chain towards high-value-added segments like catalytic and luminescent materials. Through "extending, supplementing, and strengthening the industrial chain," it will accelerate the formation of a metal new materials industrial cluster with clear division of labor and efficient collaboration.
Second, strengthen the guiding role of technological innovation to enhance the level of deep processing of resources. Chongzuo will deepen cooperation with research institutions like Central South University, effectively establishing and utilizing platforms such as the Central South University Chongzuo Industrial Base. It will promote the industrial application of key core technologies like high-purity manganese sulfate, lithium manganate, and rare earth permanent magnet materials, increasing the utilization rate of deep processing of resources and retaining more added value locally.
Third, adhere to green and safe development to build an eco-friendly industrial system. Chongzuo will strictly uphold environmental protection baselines, promote green mine construction and clean production technology transformation, and strictly implement ecological restoration responsibilities. Leveraging the advantages of the four border counties (cities) – Pingxiang, Daxin, Ningming, and Longzhou – it will deepen the "imported resources + local processing" model, achieving unity of economic, ecological, and social benefits.
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