On the afternoon of December 31, 2025, Guigang City held a press conference in the urban area on the high-quality development of the city's wood and home furnishing industry cluster. The conference introduced Guigang's main practices in promoting the development of the wood and home furnishing industry, covering policy guidance, improvement of supporting services, and brand enhancement. In addition, it responded to questions on the application of artificial intelligence in the wood industry, building a panel furniture industry, and the results of participating in the World Forestry Industry Conference. Relevant officials from the Guigang Forestry Bureau attended the conference and answered reporters' questions.

After more than 20 years of development, Guigang's timber industry has become the city's largest industrial sector. From January to November 2025, our city added 104 enterprises above designated size, ranking first in Guangxi, of which 66 were wood industry enterprises, accounting for 63.5. percent. Wood enterprises above designated size achieved total output value of RMB 51.104 billion, up 6.5. percent year on year, driving the growth of the city's total industrial output value above designated size by 2.6. percentage points and becoming the core support for stabilizing industrial growth. There are 715 wood enterprises above designated size, accounting for about 56 percent of all above-designated-size enterprises in the city, more than 30 percent of the Guangxi total, and about 10 percent of the national total. Annual output of man-made panels exceeds 24 million cubic meters, accounting for one-third of Guangxi's annual production of man-made panels. The output value of Guigang's timber processing industry has ranked first in Guangxi for many consecutive years, making it a true Capital of Panels in Southern China.

Strengthening policy guidance and optimizing the business environment

Our city has successively introduced a series of policy plans, including the Three-Year Action Plan for the High-Quality Development of Guigang's Modern Forestry Industry, the Five-Year Action Plan for Promoting the Development of Guigang's Wood Industry, and the 14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Guigang's Timber Processing Industry. It is currently compiling the 15th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Guigang Forestry, providing policy guidance and support for the planning and development of the wood industry. Key efforts are being made in planning industrial parks and giving play to agglomeration effects. The city is making every effort to build a trillion-yuan green smart home furnishing and high-end panel industrial cluster. At present, Guigang has built seven specialized forest products industrial parks with a total area of more than 100,000 mu, among which the Guigang Green Home Furnishing Industrial Park and the Qintang Green Home Furnishing Industrial Park have been recognized by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration as national forestry industry demonstration parks. There are only 75 such parks in the country and only 6. in Guangxi. The city is innovating government services and optimizing the business environment, continuously improving its precise enterprise service mechanism, promoting mother-style services, and striving to build a full-chain, full-cycle, and all-round service system. For example, it established and strengthened the Party committee of the wood industry chain, and through practical measures such as building a closed-loop management mechanism of enterprise ordering, Party committee dispatching, liaison office supervision, and feedback evaluation, as well as building a government-bank-enterprise-research exchange and service platform, it precisely identifies and targets the pain points and difficulties of enterprise development, creating a business environment with better policies, better services, and greater vitality. It has also innovated and optimized administrative approval, supported approval agency services, effectively shortened the time for enterprises to begin production after commencement, and promoted increases in both quantity and quality of production.

Improving supporting services and promoting the development of the full industrial chain

Focusing on strengthening leading enterprises, completing the chain, and building clusters, the city supports enterprises with large production scale, long industrial chains, and strong market prospects in becoming bigger and stronger. It has introduced leading decorative paper enterprises such as Qifeng, Jiashijia, and Zhisheng Wood Industry to build the richest decorative paper industrial chain in South China, extend toward terminal products, and effectively increase product added value. The city is also advancing technological innovation by establishing the municipal wood industry research institute and scientific innovation platforms such as forest product testing and R and D laboratories, including the Guixincheng Testing Center and the China-ASEAN Qintang Intelligent Green Home Furnishing Inspection Center, lowering enterprise testing costs and promoting innovative development in the wood industry.

Enhancing brand influence and accelerating intelligent transformation

The city has precisely carried out industrial activities featuring going out and inviting in, organizing enterprises to go out and participate in building materials expos in Wuhan, Changsha, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and other places, while also holding many production and sales matchmaking conferences in Guigang, actively broadening sales channels and enhancing brand influence and visibility. At the same time, it has planned participation in and hosting of the World Forestry Industry Conference in Nanning, actively building the city's regional brand, promoting the name of the Capital of Panels in Southern China, and helping Guigang move vigorously toward becoming the Southern Capital of Wood. It is also promoting international trade cooperation by working with commerce, customs, and other departments to vigorously develop cross-border e-commerce and, relying on the golden waterway of the Xijiang River, forming a logistics network centered on Guigang Port to help enterprises expand into overseas markets and push Guigang panels to international markets, especially the Middle East and ASEAN regions. By leveraging digital and intelligent development and making use of various online and offline trading platforms, the city is enhancing the international influence of the Guigang timber market and promoting industrial transformation and upgrading. For example, Jianxin Wood Industry has gradually upgraded from producing low-end packaging boards to multilayer ecological boards and furniture boards, while Hanbang Wood Industry, Boyite Home, and Baixiu Furniture have introduced Industry 4.0. fully automated production lines to advance intelligent transformation.

In the next step, our city's timber industry will strive to achieve major breakthroughs in investment attraction, new breakthroughs in cultivating leading enterprises, high-quality breakthroughs in convenient services for people and enterprises, and major breakthroughs in project declaration.

Questions and answers with reporters:

During the Q and A session, the relevant department heads gave detailed answers on topics such as the application of artificial intelligence in the wood industry, how the city will build a panel furniture industry next, and what activities Guigang participated in during the 2025 World Forestry Industry Conference and what results were achieved.

How is artificial intelligence applied in the wood industry?

Answer: First, strengthen collaborative industrial innovation. Focusing on the actual needs of the wood industry, scientific research work is being carried out on the application of artificial intelligence in timber processing, product design, quality inspection, and other links. Enterprises are supported in cooperating with universities and research institutions to jointly conduct technological R and D and innovation, improve the integration of artificial intelligence with the wood industry, and attract more artificial intelligence enterprises to participate in industrial upgrading. Second, strengthen talent cultivation and introduction. Greater efforts are being made to introduce and train talent in the field of artificial intelligence. On the one hand, preferential policies are being formulated to attract high-end talents and teams in the field of artificial intelligence from home and abroad to start businesses and work in Guigang, providing them with a good working environment and development space. On the other hand, cooperation with universities and vocational colleges is being strengthened to establish relevant majors and courses, cultivate local artificial intelligence technical talent, and provide talent support for the intelligent transformation of the wood industry. Third, improve the data standards and security system. Construction of data standards for the wood industry is being strengthened, with a unified platform for data collection, collation, and analysis being established to improve the quality and usability of data. At the same time, vigorous efforts are being made to develop key technologies such as high-performance intelligent contracts, multi-chain networking architecture, heterogeneous cross-chain interaction, and on-chain and off-chain interaction, build a trusted data space, clarify requirements and incentive measures for all parties in sharing data models, ensure data security, eliminate enterprise concerns about data leakage, and strengthen the confidence of artificial intelligence enterprises in settling in. Fourth, improve market awareness and acceptance. Training and promotion activities on the application of artificial intelligence in the wood industry are being organized, with industry experts and successful enterprises invited to share experiences, helping wood enterprises gain a deep understanding of the advantages and application cases of artificial intelligence technologies and improve their awareness and acceptance of them. For example, enterprises with relatively good foundations such as Boyite, Jiashijia, Zhisheng, and Hanbang are being used as pilots to promote demonstration applications of artificial intelligence technology, using actual results to drive more enterprises to actively introduce artificial intelligence technology and create a good market environment for artificial intelligence enterprises.

How will Guigang build the panel furniture industry next?

Answer: As a national core area for timber processing, Guigang has an industrial foundation with annual production capacity of more than 26 million cubic meters of various panels, as well as existing resources of 7. furniture enterprises above designated size and more than 500 below designated size. It is also adjacent to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and has obvious location advantages in radiating to ASEAN. Within a radius of 200 kilometers, there is also direct demand from a renovation market with more than 15 million people, giving our city unique advantages for developing the furniture industry. First, accelerate the construction of industrial parks and provide more complete infrastructure and supporting services for existing parks, such as the National Guigang Green Home Furnishing Industry Demonstration Park and the Qintang Green Home Furnishing Industry Demonstration Park. Second, encourage enterprises to carry out technological upgrading and introduce advanced automation equipment and systems, such as Industry 4.0. standard production lines, to realize automated control of the production process and improve the level of intelligence, reduce dependence on manual labor, improve production efficiency and product quality, and lower production costs. Third, integrate upstream and downstream enterprises to form a complete industrial chain including rotary-cut veneer, panels, veneered furniture boards, whole-house customization, and high-end furniture, while developing supporting manufacturing industries such as wood machinery, adhesives, hardware, leather, and fabrics, improving the local supporting rate of the industry, enhancing the competitiveness and market response speed of the whole industry, and building a modern, advanced, high-end wood industry cluster with rational layout, comprehensive functions, and strong competitiveness. Fourth, intensify investment attraction, continuously cultivate the existing furniture industry foundation, and strive to introduce highly influential furniture leading enterprises to drive the takeoff of Guigang's furniture industry. Fifth, promote enterprises in building their own brands, strengthen cooperation with domestic research institutes, universities, and industry associations, focus on design R and D and brand services, cultivate the core competitiveness of enterprises, and build high-end and green brands.

What activities did Guigang participate in at the 2025 World Forestry Industry Conference held in Nanning this November, and what results were achieved?

Answer: This World Forestry Industry Conference was a global forestry industry event that is world-class, national-level, and specialized, strongly supported by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration and hosted by the autonomous regional government.

Our city participated in three main activities:

First, Zhu Huidong, Secretary of the Guigang Municipal Party Committee, led our city's delegation to attend the opening ceremony of the 2025 World Forestry Industry Conference, and Gangnan District and the Municipal Forestry Bureau took the stage at the opening ceremony to participate in the signing ceremony for major projects at the conference.

Second, Guigang participated in the 2025 World Forest Products and Wood Products Exhibition. At Hall D5 of the Nanning Convention and Exhibition Center, our city organized more than 50 enterprises and arranged a 1,500-square-meter exhibition area to showcase our city's highlights in forestry, forest products, and the image of forestry enterprises. Exhibits in the hall covered Guigang's featured forest products such as timber processing and under-forest economy.

Third, the Guigang Municipal People's Government hosted the 2025 International Trade Exchange Promotion Conference for Forest Products, inviting foreign forestry officials, representatives of associations and organizations, academicians, and many other industry experts to conduct exchanges and deliver keynote reports.

During the conference, Secretary Zhu met with important merchant representatives attending the 2025 World Forestry Industry Conference and the 2025 International Trade Exchange Promotion Conference for Forest Products. The guests highly praised Guigang's achievements in developing the forestry industry and genuinely felt Guigang's pro-business and business-friendly attitude. They expressed their willingness to deepen communication and docking, actively seek cooperation projects, and help the high-quality development of Guigang's forestry industry.

Guigang gained rich results from this World Forestry Industry Conference. Participating enterprises won a batch of special awards and excellent exhibit awards, while the Guigang Forestry Bureau and related personnel received advanced collective and advanced individual honors.

Source: Guigang Publicity