Zhuhai Special Economic Zone is now embarking on a new historical starting point as it welcomed its 42nd anniversary on Aug 26, with the city of Zhuhai firmly implementing the "industry first" development strategy in its pursuit of a promising future. 

Praised as a growing major development engine of Guangdong Province, Zhuhai is the only city connected directly to both Hong Kong and Macao by roadways, officials noted during the 13th CPC Guangdong Provincial Congress held in Guangzhou in May.  

In the past 42 years, the city has formulated a strong industrial foundation featuring advanced manufacturing and has cultivated numerous industry-leading enterprises, such as Gree Electric Appliances. It now enjoys great fame both at home and abroad for its vital and rich innovation resources, beautiful urban sceneries, as well as its outstanding ecological environment. 

Vigorous and beautiful Zhuhai [Photo by Li Jianshu / Zhuhai Media Group]

Zhuhai Mayor Huang Zhihao put forward in the 2022 Government Work Report that the city will give priority to the development of advanced manufacturing and make full use of the real economy to drive local growth. 

The city's GDP in the first half of 2022 achieved a stable performance, reaching 190.68 billion yuan ($27.82 billion). The added value of industries above designated size during the January-June period increased by 8.5 percent year-on-year to 74.86 billion yuan ($10.92 billion), ranking second in Guangdong in terms of growth rate, while its industrial investment posed strong growth, increasing 40 percent year-on-year. 

The April 24 Zhuhai Industrial Development Conference affirmed that the city will focus on developing its four leading industries of new generation information technology, new energy, integrated circuits, as well as biomedicine and health. It will also develop three advantageous industries of intelligent home appliances, equipment manufacturing, and fine chemicals. 

The aforementioned seven industries achieved total industrial output of 205.6 billion yuan ($30 billion) in the first half of 2022, with a year-on-year increase of 18.5 percent. It is expected that the city's industrial output value will exceed 1 trillion yuan ($146 billion) by 2025.

Construction will start on 44 industry 5.0 space projects this year, covering total floorage of 1 million sqm (247 acres), with construction having already started on 6.79 million sqm (1,678 acres). As of August, the city has prepared 58 industrial land lots, covering 7,773 mu (518 hectares, 1,820 acres), exceeding the annual target. 

A total of 1,191 industrial projects with a single investment of over 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) settled in Zhuhai in the first six months of 2022, completing 79 percent of the annual target, which stands at 214.9 billion yuan ($31.3 billion).