Coasting along in linear strategy
Changxing Island is not an isolated economic hot spot. The coastline of Liaoning is dotted with ports and manufacturing towns, and half a dozen areas stand out for their potential for sustained growth.
A strategy to link these areas, literally with a coastal highway, is the gist of the vision to transform China's best-known rustbelt into a gold belt. The plan, called "Five Points Along One Line", is designed to take advantage of the province's abundant coastal resources and manufacturing industries. It embodies the essence of an outward-looking economy attuned to the pace of globalization.
"'Five Points Along One Line' marks a new stage in Liaoning's reform and opening up to the world," said Li Keqiang, secretary of the Liaoning Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China.
The strategy, initiated in early 2005, outlines several key industrial areas along its coast, served by one of the most advanced road systems in the country, and will have impact on areas way beyond the coastal area. "It will serve as the engine for the province's resurgence as an economic powerhouse," said Li Wancai, vice-governor of Liaoning.
The massive new development zones will focus on different sectors, including ship-building, petrochemicals and paper making, that serve as pillar industries for each locality but avoid head-to-head competition with one another. As it stood in 2006, the economy of the coastal area accounts for 20 percent of the province's GDP and 55.7 percent of its foreign trade volume.
As the only ocean access in Northeast China, Liaoning's coastal region is one of the main land bridges linking the Asian-European region to the Pacific Rim, and thus enjoys a geographic significance. With 2,920 km of coastline, about 11 percent of the nation's total, the region has five major ports and 111 active berths, each with a capacity of more than 10,000 tons. They handle ocean transportation with 160-plus countries in the world, with throughput exceeding 300 million tons, or the equivalent of some 3.8 million twenty-foot container units (TEUs).
"Liaoning used to lag behind in terms of economic growth," said Vice-Governor Li Wancai. But the province, which has put 8.5 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) into port construction alone this year, shows every sign of an economic rebound in the years to come" .
(China Daily 06/28/2007 page26)
