Projects to enhance city's role as hub

The company, located on Donghai Island in Zhanjiang, has been the major part of the city's plan to build a world-leading environmentally friendly near-port heavy industrial base, which is mainly comprised of steel, chemicals and papermaking.

In 2018, the industrial output value of the three sectors hit 110 billion yuan, accounting for nearly half of the city's total, official figures show.

In Xiashan district of Zhanjiang, the city's central area, a pharmaceutical center laid the foundation on March 29 and will begin service in October.

The center, with an investment of nearly 100 million yuan, will be one of the largest storage and logistics centers for pharmaceutical products in West Guangdong. It will be equipped with a five-story warehouse and meet the standard of good supply practice certificate for pharmaceutical products.

The city will also build a new expressway to link with the local railway station and a terminal control center to serve the expected busier air traffic.

The expressway will also connect a highway that goes all the way to Yulin in the neighboring Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

With an investment of 372 million yuan, government officials said the 3.37-kilometer-long expressway is significant to the economic development of areas along the line.

Besides highway linkage, Zhanjiang is building a new international airport, which will be the third-largest international airport of Guangdong when it is put into operation by the end of 2020.

As an affiliated project to the new airport, a terminal control center started construction in March with a total investment of 460 million yuan.

When it is put into service in 2021, the control center will work together with the other two centers in Guangzhou and Zhuhai to safeguard aviation safety for flights to and from Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan.

In 2018, the local government invested a total of 16.7 billion yuan in local transportation infrastructure, up 61 percent from the previous year, to upgrade the city's roads, railways, the airport and the seaport, according to official statistics.