The city of Zhuhai in South China has been actively promoting its high-quality development during the first half of this year, resulting in a gradual recovery of its overall economic performance. 

Zhuhai's GDP for the January-June period in 2023 reached 206.33 billion yuan ($28.71 billion), with a year-on-year increase of 5.1 percent. The primary, secondary, and tertiary industries contributed added value of 2.71 billion yuan ($376.88 million), 91.56 billion yuan ($12.7 billion), and 112.06 billion yuan ($15.6 billion) - representing year-on-year growth rates of 5.6 percent, 6.5 percent, and 4 percent respectively.

A panoramic view of Zhuhai. [Photo by Zhao Zi / WeChat account: zhuhaifabu]

Zhuhai has seized the opportunities to accelerate the development of its strategic emerging industries, as evidenced by the positive momentum exhibited in H1 across its seven pillar industries: new-generation information technology, new energy, integrated circuits, biomedicines and health, smart home appliances, equipment manufacturing, and fine chemicals.

Their total added value increased by 9.4 percent to 59.3 billion yuan ($8.25 billion) - accounting for 77.4 percent of the added value generated by large-scale industries in the entire city. 

In particular, smart home appliances and new energy industries realized eye-catching performances, with year-on-year growth rates of 23.3 percent and 34.7 percent, respectively in terms of added value.

The proportion of the added value of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries was 1.3: 44.4: 54.3, with the tertiary industry accounting for more than half. 

Furthermore, Zhuhai's industrial structure has continued to be optimized with the proportion of the secondary industry steadily increasing. It has risen from 43.1 percent in the same period last year to the current level of 44.4 percent, an increase of 1.3 percentage points. 

Elsewhere, the added value of the manufacturing industry accounted for 35.6 percent of the regional GDP, with a contribution rate of 51.5 percent. The value added of advanced manufacturing above a designated size climbed by 7.1 percent to 45.62 billion yuan ($6.35 billion), making up  59.5 percent of the added value of large-scale industries.

By end-June, the total number of hi-tech enterprises in the city had reached 2,308, while the added value of hi-tech enterprises above a designated size accounted for 71.2 percent of Zhuhai's total. Investment in hi-tech manufacturing grew by 52.5 percent to 17.23 billion yuan ($2.4 billion) and that of advanced manufacturing surged by 51.1 percent to reach 20.75 billion yuan ($2.9 billion).

The added value of the financial industry reached 24.8 billion yuan ($3.4 billion) in the Jan-June period, increasing by 8.1 percent year-on-year. This sector accounted for 12 percent of the city's GDP, contributing nearly 20 percent to its GDP growth.

Support measures for deep-sea aquaculture and fishing, proposing 11 measures in five areas, were recently released. The document covered promoting the high-quality development of deep-sea aquaculture, vigorously developing deep-sea fishing, and building a trading center for marine products in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. 

Additionally, it advocated Zhuhai invest nearly 1 billion yuan ($138.8 million) over the next three years to construct modern fish and seafood farms.

Furthermore, the construction of industry 5.0 space projects has been accelerated, with the city having completed projects covering a total area of 5.44 million square meters (1334.4 miles), and 3.12 million sqm under construction. An additional 3.56 million sqm (879.7 miles) of industry 5.0 space projects will commence construction in the year's second half. 

Currently, 183 projects have signed contracts for settlement in local industry 5.0 space projects, with a planned investment of 35.75 billion yuan ($5 billion) and an estimated output value of 93.99 billion yuan ($13 billion).

Zhuhai witnessed the addition of four new listed companies in the first six months of 2023, bringing the total number to 48. Forty-three Zhuhai-based enterprises were granted the title of Specialized, Elaborative, Characteristic, and Emerging "Little Giant" Enterprises. These are officially recognized as elite small and medium-sized companies in their advanced fields. This outstanding performance exceeded the cumulative figure achieved over the previous four years. 

From January to May, the city received 10,854 patent authorizations, averaging 130.67 invention patents per 10,000 people, ranking it at the forefront in Guangdong Province.

Since the start of the year, the flow efficiency of people, goods, and capital among the three regions of Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao has greatly improved.

That's with the full-scale construction of the new Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB) economic and trade channel and the implementation of innovative policies, such as allowing Macao and Hong Kong cars to head north.

In the first half of the year, the daily average number of cross-border trucks running on the HZMB reached 1,450 vehicles, an increase of five times compared to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels in 2019. Notably, the daily clearance of vehicles at the HZMB Zhuhai Port recorded a maximum of 9,300 units.

Elsewhere, the total value of imports and exports reached 138.84 billion yuan in H1, a year-on-year decrease of 10.3 percent. However, in June, the city's imports and exports were valued at 26.67 billion yuan ($3.7 billion), rising by 1.4 percent and achieving positive growth for two consecutive months. 

Actual utilization of foreign direct investment in the city during the first half reached $951 million, a year-on-year increase of 13.7 percent. The growth rate was 21.1 percentage points higher than that in the first quarter.

The value of imports and exports of Zhuhai's cross-border e-commerce in H1 performed well – with a surge of 31.7 percent to 10.28 billion yuan ($1.4 billion).

Zhuhai's port business achieved a 12 percent growth in cargo throughput and 5.3 percent in container throughput during the period. Zhuhai (Jinwan) Airport recorded that its passenger throughput expanded by 227 percent of 5.3 million in H1.

New opportunities in developing new energy and new energy storage industries have been given full play in Zhuhai. Twenty-eight key industrial projects with a total investment of over 100 billion yuan ($14 billion) were accelerated during the period, while the city's total industrial investment has increased by 41.6 percent.

An increase in inbound tourists for tourism and business purposes was observed in Zhuhai, accompanied by sustained growth in catering and accommodation spending, a significant recovery in duty-free and exhibition consumption, stable improvement in upgraded consumption and online consumption, and a continuous recovery in the consumer market.

The city received 15.49 million tourists, up 227.2 percent in the first half of 2023. A total of 583 conferences and exhibitions were held in the city, attracting 361,400 participants. The total number of inbound and outbound people at the city's checkpoints reached 72.82 million, climbing by 36.2 percent.

In the first half of the year, the city's total retail sales of consumer goods reached 53.36 billion yuan ($7.4 billion), up 5.5 percent. In particular, catering revenue increased by 43.8 percent and the business income in the cultural and recreational industries surged by a whopping 643.4 percent.

By the end of June, the total number of business entities in Zhuhai numbered 435,000, an increase of 3.5 percent compared to the end of 2022. In the first half of the year, there were 28,194 new business entities established, a year-on-year increase of 7.5 percent.

A total of 12,879 new enterprises registered in the city in the first six months, of which 937 were foreign-invested ones, a 7.7-percent increase.

In H1, the city created 25,700 job opportunities and the registered urban unemployment rate was 2.36 percent.

Per capita disposable income of residents in the city was 33,608 yuan ($4,673), a year-on-year increase of 3.1 percent. The urban-rural income ratio was 1.72, a decrease of 0.06 percent compared with last year, indicating a gradual narrowing of the urban-rural income gap.

Zhuhai officials have announced their commitment to promoting qualitative and effective improvements and reasonable economic growth in the second half of the year.