Guangxi plans to invest CNY100 billion (US$12.94 billion) over the next five to add 2,500 kilometres of railway tracks and upgrade existing lines to turn the autonomous region into a railway hub for China and Asean nations.

The project is expected to boost trade between Southeast Asia and China's Pan Beibu Bay Economic Zone, turning the region of the mainland into a new manufacturing centre.

"The investment will be unprecedented in railway development in Guangxi and in a few years from now, it will take only nine hours from Nanning to Beijing and 3.5 hours from Nanning to Guangzhou," said Shao Liping, director general of Liuzhou Railway Bureau in a Xinhua report.

The plan is expected to begin taking shape by the end of the decade when Guangxi's new railway network will comprise one international carrier, the Nanning-Pingxiang Railway

The network will also be made up of several two freight lines, the Nanning-Kunming Railway and the Guizhou-Guangxi Railway; three passenger lines, the Nanning-Guilin Railway, Nanning-Guangzhou Railway and the Guiyang-Guangzhou Railway; and four lines that will link coastal areas in the southwest, northwest, southeast and centre to help attract greater volumes of trade into the Beibu Bay area, according to Mr Shao.

To boost the Pan Beibu Bay's economic co-operation with Asean, China has so far positioned Guangxi as a regional hub for logistics, commerce, trade, processing, and information exchange.