Recently, the People's Government of Guangxi Autonomous Region issued the Outline of the 13th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (hereinafter referred to as the Outline). According to the Outline, in the next five years, Guangxi will focus on building the Nanning-Guiyang high-speed railway, promote the planning and construction of a new north-south land international corridor connecting Nanning with key cities such as Xi'an and Lanzhou, and a "second northbound corridor" high-speed railway from Nanning to Hohhot.

According to a report by 21st Century Business Herald on February 24, the high-speed railways from Nanning to Xi'an, Baotou (Baotou-Haikou high-speed railway, i.e., Baotou to Haikou), and Nanning to Hohhot have been included in the national "13th Five-Year Plan" "eight vertical and eight horizontal" high-speed rail network. Currently, the high-speed railways from Nanning to Kunming, Nanning to Guangzhou, and Nanning to Beijing are under construction or have been completed. In the future, Nanning is expected to become a new high-speed rail hub with connections in all directions.

Su Qingpin, a regional economic researcher at the Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences, believes that the construction of multiple high-speed railways in Guangxi will improve the local infrastructure that lags behind, facilitate industrial restructuring, and at the same time, new economic belts are expected to form along the high-speed rail lines.

The Hohhot-Nanning high-speed rail corridor proposed in the Outline is a new project.

On July 29, 2015, Zhang Xiaoqin, Vice Chairman of Guangxi Autonomous Region, mentioned Guangxi's three major corridors at a press conference of the State Council Information Office, but did not mention the new Hohhot-Nanning corridor.

Zhang Xiaoqin stated that in the next step, Guangxi will "open up three major corridors and promote the joint construction of five networks." One corridor is to connect with maritime ASEAN, from the ports of Beibu Gulf in Guangxi southward to the ports of ASEAN countries and the South Pacific and Indian Oceans; one is to connect with land ASEAN, from Nanning through Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia-Thailand-Malaysia to Singapore, which is the China-Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor; and one is to use Nanning as a node, going north through Guiyang to connect with Chengdu and Chongqing, and then to Lanzhou and Xi'an, which is the new north-south international corridor in the west.

Through these three corridors, maritime ASEAN and land ASEAN will be connected, the northwest and southwest will be connected, Central Asia and Southeast Asia will be connected, and the Maritime Silk Road and the Land Silk Road will be connected. At the same time, Guangxi will promote the joint construction of five networks with ASEAN countries: highways, railways, shipping, aviation, and communications.

At present, the high-speed rail corridor from Nanning to Guiyang, Chongqing, and Xi'an has been included in the Baotou-Haikou high-speed railway and has become one "vertical" of the national eight vertical and eight horizontal network. Correspondingly, the newly added Nanning-Hohhot northbound corridor is an addition to the three corridors mentioned by Zhang Xiaoqin.

Hubei Province disclosed some information about this new corridor at the end of last year. According to a meeting of the Hubei Development and Reform Commission on December 29, 2015, preliminary feasibility studies are being conducted for the Xiangyang-Jingmen-Yichang high-speed railway, and Hubei Province is striving to include it in the Hohhot-Nanning high-speed rail corridor.

Lin Beizhan, Secretary-General of the International Land Bridge Transport Working Committee, believes that the opening of the Hohhot-Nanning high-speed railway will greatly enhance the transport hub status of Nanning and Hohhot, surpassing some provincial capital cities.

It is understood that in the future, Nanning will have high-speed or rapid railways in eight directions: Beijing, Hohhot, Guangzhou, Guiyang (Chengdu), Kunming, Hanoi, Fangchenggang, and Zhanjiang (Haikou), and a star-shaped railway network is expected to form.

In addition, multiple new high-speed railways are under construction in Guangxi, which will promote the construction of economic belts along the routes.

According to the Outline, Guangxi will focus on building an important gateway, constructing an important hub connecting the "Belt and Road," industrial cooperation bases, open cooperation platforms, cultural exchange bonds, and a regional financial center, accelerating the construction of the China (Beibu Gulf) Pilot Free Trade Zone, and promoting the construction of the Pan-Beibu Gulf economic cooperation mechanism, the China-Indochina Peninsula International Economic Cooperation Corridor, key development and opening-up pilot zones, cross-border (border) economic cooperation zones, and international cooperation parks.