Port economy the focus of future development

Zhanjiang, a coastal city in South China's Guangdong province, will make the local port economy into a core driver for its future high-quality development, according to a guideline issued by the Guangdong provincial government.

The guideline was released in hopes of strengthening Zhanjiang's position as a subcentral city in the province. The development of coastal economic belt and the upgrade of industrial clusters are among the key tasks.

To realize its target, the guideline proposed several major steps including accelerating the development of world-class industrial clusters, fostering large-scale industrial parks and building up modern industrial bases for the local port economy.

"We are planning to launch four world-class projects, 10 strategic industrial clusters and 12 types of high-quality industrial parks," said Wang Xiaosui, head of Zhanjiang's industry and information technology bureau. "We will also incubate three industrial clusters each with an annual industrial output surpassing 100 billion yuan ($15.23 billion) in the petrochemical, steel, as well as new energy and automobile industries."

To that end, the government of Zhanjiang has initiated a series of policies to facilitate industrial investment and support key projects in the city.

One of the local star projects, Zhongke (Guangdong) Refinery and Petrochemical Project－which uses a highly automated production system－began producing gasoline and diesel fuel last year.

With an investment of 44 billion yuan in its first phase, the plant's annual output value is expected to exceed 60 billion yuan when the first phase becomes fully operational. Its second phase is going to kick off later this year.

Baosteel Zhanjiang Iron and Steel, another high-profile project in Zhanjiang, will kickstart the operation of its No 3 furnace by the end of June.

Directed by the guideline, Zhanjiang officials said they will take measures to strengthen the planning and construction of large-scale industrial parks with high standards in the following years, covering land planning, infrastructure construction, supporting facilities and investment promotion.

Efforts from the local government of Zhanjiang have yielded outstanding results in the past year.

The city completed investment projects with a total value of 232 billion yuan during the 13th Five Year Plan period (2016-20).

In the first two months of this year, the added value of local companies above a designated size－those with annual revenue of 20 million yuan or more－reached about 12.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 31.2 percent.

Among them, four backbone enterprises respectively funded by Baosteel, Zhongke, China National Offshore Oil and papermaker Chenming－achieved a combined added value of 8.8 billion yuan, accounting for 71.2 percent of the city's total.

By 2025, the city's industrial added value above designated size is expected to double that of 2020. It's expected to exceed 130 billion yuan with an average annual increase of 12 percent, Wang said.

Baosteel Zhanjiang Iron and Steel is an important part for Zhanjiang to develop a port-based economy. PENG ZHENQIANG/FOR CHINA DAILY