As one of the member of UCLG ASPAC Council, Nanning city is eager to connect the international community in all aspects. Nanning now has 21 sister cities all around the world, but no one from New Zealand. It is our goal to twin with a city in NZ, so it is highly appreciated if you could source some cities from NZ for Nanning, we could have some exchanges in the areas of economy, trade, culture and education at the very beginning, then establish the sister city relationship if both sides are ready.
Nanning, located at the junction of economic rims of south China, southwest China and China—ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region, is the capital city and the political, economic and cultural center of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, as well as the core city of Guangxi Beibu Gulf Economic Zone. Nanning has a history of 1700 years and a total area of 22,112 square kilometers. Inhabited by multi-ethnic groups with mainly Zhuang ethnic people, the population of the city is 7.5 million. Nanning enjoys the reputation of “The Green City of China”, “Excellent City on Tourism of China”, and “UN Habitat Scroll of Honor Award ”due to high percentage of forest coverage and remarkable achievements in improving urban ecological environment and human settlements.
As an important gateway to Southeast Asia for Southwestern China, Nanning is a hub, a regional center and an opening city that plays an active role in the communication between China and ASEAN countries. It is becoming a new and booming economic zone and a hotspot for foreign investment in China. Nanning aims to build itself into a moderately prosperous society by promoting its economic, cultural, social, and ecological development in the forthcoming 5 years based on the development ideas of Innovation, Coordination, Green, Opening-up and Sharing.
14 sessions of China-ASEAN Expo have been staged in Nanning since 2004, participated by over 60 state leaders and over 2000 ministers from different countries of the world. 6 countries namely Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Malaysia have set up consulate generals, and all the 10 ASEAN countries along with Japan, Republic of Korea, Hong Kong SAR and Macao SAR have established Business Liaison Departments (Offices) in Nanning. In this regard, Nanning is known as one of the most familiar Chinese cities to ASEAN nations and activities held in Nanning have been considered as the best channel for bilateral cooperation.
In recent years, the city’s economic indicators have been showing a sharp rise through the effort of optimizing industrial structure, facilitating the transformation of development mode and developing economic cooperation platforms such as advanced manufacturing base, international trade and logistics base, information exchange center and financial center aiming at China-ASEAN market. Service industry featuring commerce and trade, tourism, catering and exhibition has been flourishing.