written by Lin Han / translated by Ma Jinyu

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BGEZ’s Urbanization: Jointly Benefi t from Financial Reform

written by Lin Han / translated by Ma Jinyu

Spurred by government policies and administrative systems in China, the tenyear-old Guangxi Beibu Gulf Economic Zone (BGEZ) comprised of four cities including Nanning, Beihai, Qinzhou and Fangchegngang has conducted the urban integration for three years with the reform is being strengthened and expanded, which has well clarified the implication of the inequality “1+1+1+1>4”in BGEZ. With the joint efforts of interested parties, BGEZ has undergone great changes and made a great breakthrough in urban integration.

Fruitful Achievements Made in Various Fields

With a view to promoting household registration integration, convenience-for-people measures, such as, all-in-one card for urban residency, online approval facilitation services and interregional ID card replacement services have been adopted in the Zone.

In financial services, integration has been realized in five aspects like bank service charge, bank fund transfer, after-sales insurance service, the building of regional equity trading market and the operation regions for small-loan companies.

In social insurance, the BGEZ released a series of policies concerning basic health care and maternity to unifi ed the basic pension systems for rural residents and non-working urban residents and establish a high-centralized information database.

In terms of transportation, bullet train makes Nanning, Beihai and Fangchenggang closer to each other. On September 28, 2015, the ETC system for Guangxi high-speed roads was offi cially linked to the national network.

Rich results have also been made in port customs clearance. To promote the facilitation of customs clearance, the BGEZ has conducted “One-time Check in Six Cities”, “Three Ones” as well as “Single Window” and achieved substantive progress.

As for tourism, the BGEZ issued the Bagui travel card, fixed prices for tourism products and established federation for Beibu Gulf tourism promotion with Guangdong and Hainan provinces. With regard to education, Mid-term Examination Plan for Beibu Gulf Economic Zone Urban Integration Development was formulated to better balance the educational resources.

Concerted Efforts to Make Bold Innovations

In May 2011, the BGEZ made strategic planning and arrangement for its future development. In January 2013, Peng Qinghua, Party Secretary of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region made important instructions. Later in April 2013, related plan was launched by Guangxi government, which opened an era for urban integration in BGEZ.

On the basis of “priority to the easy” and “being innovative”, the BGEZ has undergone great changes in just 3 years.

Under the guidance of other regions, the BGEZ chose its own mode of urban integration of communication. That is, both roaming charges and long-distance fees will be adjusted as local fees without changing the area code and dialingway. Meanwhile, roaming charges and longdistance fees of mobile customers and fixed telephone subscribers are eliminated.

Benefits of reform are being delivered as the BGEZ breaks through the restrictions of various fossilized ideas, and takes the lead in reform and innovation.

Since 2015, the “Three Ones” mode of customs clearance has been adopted in all surveillance areas in Guangxi. Starting from March 30, 2015, the operation regions for small-loan companies were extended to six cities including Nanning, Beihai, Qinzhou, Fandgchenggang, Chongzuo and Baise with 136 companies being on trials.

Work Hard to Move forward

The direct benefi ciaries of urban integration are citizens in BGEZ. As the integration deepens, the BGEZ will give priority to urban household registration, social insurance, education and transportation. In a new stage, it becomes the inevitable trend and internal requirement for the BGEZ to actively and steadily move forward. To be specifi c, urban integration in communication will move into the third phase, which means that the area code in BGEZ will be unifi ed. Besides, the BGEZ should make unified arrangements to establish institutions for the border financial reforms, and achieve transportation integration in bus, metro and high-speed rail among cities. As for Guangxi government, on one hand, it needs to improve the public fi nance system and set up cost-sharing mechanism with government, society and individuals; on the other hand, the government should provide urban integration with appropriate fi nancial support. Only when all cities in BGEZ work together to propel the urban integration will it release positive energy and benefi t all.