The BESIII experiment is a multi-purpose detector operating on the electron- positron collider BEPCII in Beijing. Since 2008, the world's largest sample of J ψ, ψ' were collected. Due to increasing luminosity, the inner drift chamber is showing signs of aging. In 2014, an upgrade was proposed by the Italian collaboration based on the Cylindrical Gas Electron Multipliers (CGEM) technology, developed within the KLOE-II experiment, but with several new features and innovations. In this contribution, an overview of the project will be presented. Preliminary results of a beam test will be shown, with particular focus on the detector performance in magnetic field, with different configurations of electric field. A new readout mode, the µTPC readout, will also be described. The project has been recognized as a Significant Research Project within the Executive Programme for Scientific and Technological Cooperation between Italy and P.R.C for the years 2013-2015, and more recently has been selected as one of the project funded by the European Commission within the call H2020- MSCA-RISE-2014.