The 23rd China-ASEAN Expo and the China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit have arrived as planned in Nanning, where hibiscus flowers are in full bloom to welcome global guests. Business representatives from China and ASEAN nations have gathered to seek opportunities, discuss cooperation, and shape the future together.

Leveraging the national-level open platforms of the Expo and Summit, Laibin City has seized the moment to expand opening-up, engage ASEAN, and attract resources. The municipal delegation adopted a dual strategy combining participation in exhibitions with independent investment promotion, while simultaneously joining autonomous-region-level centralized signings and hosting dedicated investment events. This approach has significantly boosted the effectiveness and quality of investment attraction efforts.

A total of 19 projects were signed this time, covering key industries such as artificial intelligence, bio-based materials, green chemicals, and advanced metal materials. These align perfectly with the city's modern industrial system led by the "9+3" framework, strongly advancing industrial transformation, upgrading, and supply chain reinforcement.

Behind these numbers lies Laibin's solid stride toward broader opening-up. These 19 projects represent more than mere contracts—they are a "vote of confidence" from the market in Laibin and another milestone in the city's deep integration into the new development paradigm.

Standing at the Expo, a window into China-ASEAN cooperation, we must consider: how can Laibin capitalize on this momentum to write a new chapter of maritime-oriented opening-up from its central Guangxi inland position, truly becoming a high ground for ASEAN economic and trade cooperation? The answer lies within mindset, industry, platforms, and services.

A Maritime Mindset Determines the Breadth of Opening-Up. Laibin is neither coastal nor border-adjacent—that's a given. Yet openness is never determined by coastline length; rather, the depth of thinking determines the height of development. Currently, Laibin finds itself in a window of multiple overlapping opportunities: the official opening of the Pinglu Canal has fulfilled a century-old dream of river-to-sea connectivity; the Liuwu Railway is about to commence operations; and the pace of the New Western Land-Sea Corridor is accelerating, fundamentally transforming the region's geographical advantages. The city's "15th Five-Year Plan" outlines the "Central Guangxi Water-Land Intermodal Regional Logistics Hub" as one of its four key functional positions, while the 6th Municipal Party Congress proposed a spatial layout of "one core, one main axis, two corridors, and six supports." These strategies are not passive waiting for the wind to blow—they are proactive responses to change. Not being coastal or border-adjacent doesn't mean we cannot seek maritime strength. The Expo is a vital springboard in this regard: we must fully leverage this national platform, borrow vessels and ride momentum, converting the Expo's "flow of people, information, and projects" into Laibin's "flow of capital, technology, and talent." By persistently advancing the "four maritime orientations"—optimizing maritime layout, clearing maritime transport, strengthening maritime industries, and exploring maritime institutions—we can transform this central Guangxi heartland into a genuinely open frontier.

Industrial Strength Bolsters the Foundation of Cooperation. Open cooperation ultimately rests on industry; without solid industrial foundations, openness becomes a castle in the air. This round of signings carries substantial weight: the Guangxi Laibin Bio-based New Materials Intelligent Manufacturing Base project, with a total investment of 10 billion yuan, has landed in the Sanjiangkou New Area; an annual production capacity of 8 million pieces of general aluminum deep-processing project, worth 1.15 billion yuan, has settled in the municipal industrial park. A wave of quality projects across bio-based materials, green chemicals, advanced metals, equipment manufacturing, wood processing, and modern agricultural food processing has taken root in various counties and districts. The direction is clear—Laibin's investment attraction pursues precision and chain-based strategies centered on the "9+3" modern industrial system.

ASEAN is a globally significant manufacturing base and raw material supplier. Laibin's sugar refining and food processing, general aluminum advanced manufacturing, and metal and critical metal industries are highly complementary to ASEAN nations with substantial cooperation potential. Procuring raw materials, markets, and technology from ASEAN while pushing our products and services outward—this is a venture rich with promise. By leveraging the water transport advantages of the Qianjiang, Hongshui, and Liujiang rivers, strategically positioning key industrial parks along these waterways, and driving leading industries to extend toward the sea and ASEAN, we can seize opportunities in the restructuring of regional supply chains.

Platform Support Consolidates the Momentum of Openness. During the Expo, the city independently hosted the China-ASEAN Expo Laibin Investment Cooperation Symposium and the "Overseas Innovation in Guangxi, Entering Laibin" economic and trade exchange event. Through business roundtables, centralized project signings, and on-site park inspections, we invited merchants to visit Laibin, experience its robust industrial base, favorable business environment, and expansive growth potential firsthand. Opening-up cannot advance in isolation; it requires platform-driven coordination. Laibin is fully committed to developing Sanjiangkou New Area as the principal platform for maritime-oriented economy—the signing of the 10-billion-yuan project demonstrates that the area's carrying capacity and agglomeration effects are materializing. The central urban area and the municipal industrial park should serve as the "innovation vitality core," leading the way in technological innovation and industrial upgrading. Individual counties and districts must also identify their niches, leverage unique strengths, and form an interconnected opening-up pattern spanning east-west connectivity and north-south linkage.

Service Warmth Determines Landing Speed. Signing contracts does not equal implementation; project investment only demonstrates real achievement when converted into output value and tax revenue. The speed at which projects take effect tests the business environment and the caliber of officials. Making signed project implementation a top priority—through list-based management, specialized team advancement, tracking each project individually, and clearing each bottleneck step by step—is essential to ensure early groundbreaking, early production, and early results. Continued efforts in "institutional openness" should benchmark advanced practices: where change is needed, change it; where delegation is possible, delegate; where reduction serves efficiency, reduce. Simplify procedures for businesses, provide heartfelt support for their challenges, and ensure every investor experiences Laibin's sincerity.

The China-ASEAN Expo and the China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit serve as pragmatic platforms for regional economic integration and witness, participate in, and drive the development of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area. Each Expo brings fresh opportunities; hesitation and empty gestures have no place here. Moving from the central Guangxi hinterland to the open frontier has never been mere rhetoric—it is a sustained endeavor requiring resolve, courage, and execution. Only by continuously expanding openness and deepening cooperation can we inject robust momentum into building a "Sweet Laibin," accelerating the "Rise of Central Guangxi," and constructing a "Five Beauties" modern quality city.