The State Council has approved a development plan for the city cluster around Beibu Gulf in Guangdong and Hainan provinces and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

The plan, released on Friday, is designed to further open up the areas to Southeast Asian countries.

According to the notice, efforts should be made to boost development in livable cities in the Beibu Gulf city cluster to advance the region’s role as a portal in the Belt and Road Initiative.

The plan will also bolster efforts to further open up the country’s coastal regions and integrate the eastern, central and western regions.

The notice also suggested implementing a new development concept, driving supply-side structural reform, generating new momentum for development, focusing on opening-up to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations while protecting the clean gulf and constructing an environmentally-friendly industrial system.

It urges local governments in Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan to streamline administration and responsibility, strengthen cooperation, work out plans and report major issues, policies and projects involved in the plan to ensure a smooth implementation of the blueprint.

The cluster takes in Guangxi's capital Nanning, Zhanjiang, an industrial hub in Guangdong, and Hainan’s provincial capital Haikou. The cluster, which also includes surrounding cities such as Chongzuo in Guangxi, covers land of more than 40,000 square kilometers. The gulf has 1,600 km of coastline and is the only place in China that possesses on-land and maritime connections with ASEAN countries.