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Take off

(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-04-26 13:53

A strategy for developing a coastal economic belt in Northeast China's Liaoning Province is taking shape.

The belt will include five key areas and one highway along the east part of the province.

The five key areas are Changxing Island in Dalian, Yingkou, Jinzhou, Dandong and Huayuankou of Dalian. The highway will link all the five areas to form the coastal economic belt. Hence, the project is commonly known as "Five Points and One Line".

Dalian Changxing Island Harbour Industrial Zone

The Changxing Island Harbour Industrial Zone was set up in August 2005. The administrative committee of the zone has established five functional organizations of general office, merchant bureau, land planning and construction bureau, public security bureau and an investment company.

The industrial zone has a development area of 129.7 square kilometres. Among them, 21.1 square kilometres are harbour area, 71.7 square kilometres form an industrial area and 36.9 square kilometres are residential and tourist areas.

Construction of the zone started last June. By the end of last year, more than 2,600 households with a total population of 7,800 were moved out of the area. The preparatory work for infrastructure construction is under way.

Regional environmental assessment and plans for the industrial area and comprehensive area have been completed. Construction of highway, railway and water supply projects are expected to kick off this year.

Taking advantage of the harbour on the island, the zone will be built into a new port city with heavy equipment manufacturing, shipbuilding and quality steel products as its main industrial chain together with a chemical industrial chain of natural gas, coal and refined chemicals and a concentrated industrial area of storage, logistics and export processing.

Liaoning (Yingkou) Coastal Industry Base

The industrial base has a planned area of 120 square kilometres. The starting zone is 20 square kilometres.

Land there is mostly deserted salt land and low-lying, resulting in low cost development.

To date, land asset price evaluation, feasibility studies on the coastal industrial infrastructure projects and the environmental impact assessment have been completed.

The project has an initial capital of 420 million yuan (US$52 million) from the provincial development bank and commercial bank.

The first phase of 25 square kilometres of industrial land backfill project will start this year.

By the end of the year, a total of 15 square kilometres of land will be backfilled.

The base is designed for the development of the refined chemicals industry, equipment manufacturing, new materials, microelectronics, bio-engineering, plastic products and garments.

Jinzhou Xihai Industrial Zone and Huludao North Port Industrial Zone

The zone covers a planned area of 22.76 square kilometres with a total investment of 737 million yuan (US$92 million).

After completion, it will generate an annual industrial output value of 70 billion yuan (US$8.75 billion). It will focus on heavy chemicals industry and petrochemicals.

The industrial zone has completed 6.64 million square metres of land backfill, aiming to form harbour industry and logistics industry enterprises groups.

Huludao North Port Industrial Zone is a pioneering zone for the development of Huludao Economic Development Zone.

It has a total planned area of 21.87 square kilometres. The starting area is 16.87 square kilometres with a 16-kilometre-long coastal line.

It will be built into a shipbuilding park, harbour storage and logistics park, comprehensive industrial park and Dongshan light industry park.

Since 2005, the comprehensive industrial park has signed 20 projects with a total investment of 5.5 billion yuan (US$686.64 million). Among them, 10 projects with a total investment of 3 billion yuan (US$374.5 million) have been finalized.

The zone will focus on the development of shipbuilding and other supplementary industries, refined chemical industry and some light industry.

Liaoning Dandong Industrial Zone

Set along the Yalu River Road along the Yellow Sea, it has a planned area of 30 square kilometres with a starting area of 18.6 square kilometres.

The grounding work of the zone has kicked off and construction of the road base of the main communications artery has been completed and will be open to traffic in September this year.

A special plan for infrastructure facilities will also be completed this year. Projects for water supply, drainage, power supply and telecommunications will start one by one. A total financial input of 1 billion yuan (US$124.8 million) is expected.

Dalian Huayuankou Industrial Zone

The zone is located at Yangming Township, Zhuanghe of Dalian. With a planned area of 50 square kilometres, the zone has a starting area of 15 square kilometres.

It is only 700 metres away from the Dalian-Dandong Highway. A special railway will be extended to the zone to link it with the border railway in the east part of Northeast China. The zone is only one hour's drive from Dalian economic rim.

By 2010, an estimated 400 enterprises are expected to settle down in the zone and generate an annual output value of 64 billion yuan (US$8 billion). It is expected to provide more than 80,000 jobs.

Last year, a total of 6.2 billion yuan (US$774 million) was invested into Huayuankou Industrial zone. Infrastructure construction will be completed this year.

The zone aims to be built into a base for high and new technology products, equipment manufacturing, auto parts, new materials, refined chemicals and in-depth processing of agriculture products.

Binhai Road

Plans for the construction of Binhai Road, an expressway along the coast, have received the green light from the Ministry of Communications.

The new road will not only further improve the transportation system, but also help the formation of a harbour-based industrial belt, resource development industrial belt and tourism industry belt.

The road will link all the five areas in the east part of the province. It starts from Huludao and ends at Donggang of Dandong, stretching a total of 1,443 kilometres. It helps form a road network in the province, giving a great boost to opening up of the province.