South China FTZ beefs up efforts to draw foreign investment

A free trade zone (FTZ) in south China's Guangxi, a border autonomous region with strong ties with Southeast Asia, has given full play to its strength in attracting foreign investment and driving local economic development.

In the first eight months of this year, the Guangxi Pilot Free Trade Zone saw its paid-in foreign investment total 2.24 billion yuan (nearly 314 million U.S. dollars), nearly tripling the figure of the same period last year, leading China's free trade zones in the growth in attracting foreign investment. As a coastal and border pilot free trade zone which connects the Greater Bay Area and has strong trade and investment ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), it is working to transform its geographical advantages into the potential for attracting investment.

At the Qinzhou Port Area of the Guangxi Pilot Free Trade Zone, a foreign-funded enterprise in new energy manufacturing is optimistic about Guangxi's unique location and industrial chain advantages. After investing over 300 million U.S. dollars in building a battery-grade lithium hydroxide project, it has increased more investment this year, focusing on upgrading and expanding production lines.

"To meet our production and operational needs, we have recently increased our registered capital by 160 million U.S. dollars for technological upgrades. Currently, we are implementing a technical transformation project to enable flexible conversion between lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate production, with the first phase scheduled for completion and trial operation by the end of 2025," said Zhu Zhongqiu, general manager of Guangxi Albemarle Lithium Co., Ltd.

Recently, Guangxi rolled out an action plan to stabilize foreign investment, with a key emphasis on encouraging foreign capital to flow into competitive industries such as new energy vehicles. To this end, the Guangxi Pilot Free Trade Zone has fully utilized its open platform advantages, innovatively expanded channels for attracting investment, and established fast-track service channels for major projects, with a key focus on solutions for issues like production factor guarantees.

"We regularly host roundtable meetings for foreign-invested enterprises and have established a dedicated service mechanism for major projects to promptly assist companies in resolving their difficulties. Moving forward, we will comprehensively align with high-standard international economic and trade rules, tap into our strong trade and investment cooperation with ASEAN, and boldly explore areas such as artificial intelligence, digital economy, and service trade. This will promote high-quality investment through institutional opening-up," said Wang Xinhong, deputy director of the Office of the Guangxi Pilot Free Trade Zone.

South China FTZ beefs up efforts to draw foreign investment

The total number of inter-regional passenger trips across China during the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as chunyun, reached a record of 9.41 billion, official data showed Saturday.

The figure marked a 4.3 percent increase over the same period in 2025, according to the Ministry of Transport.

Road traffic made up the lion's share of these trips. During the period, about 8.74 billion trips were made by road, increasing by 4.2 percent year on year.

Railway passenger volume reached 540 million, expanding 4.8 percent year on year, according to the ministry.

The country's civil aviation sector recorded 94.39 million passenger trips during the period, up 4.6 percent year on year, while waterway trips surged 15.3 percent from a year ago to 35.97 million.

During the period, China's transportation authorities rolled out various measures to alleviate traffic congestion and enhace the passenger experience.

Instead of simply adding extra trains, many railway stations used ticketing system, big data to dynamically allocate capacity for popular routes. Many railway stations and airports carefully calculated their passenger demands, and then deployed robots to help guide passengers. On expressways, AI-monitoring systems were used to help better manage traffic.

For the first time this year, many train stations rolled out a large luggage delivery service, which means after ordering online, passengers can have their luggages picked up at home and delivered to their departure station or even straight to their destination.

The travel rush, often described as the world's largest annual human migration, highlights China's massive mobility and vibrant economic activity. This year's Spring Festival travel rush started on Feb. 2 and ended on March 13.

China sees record-high inter-regional trips in Spring Festival travel rush