Industrial hub sees growing investment

Liuzhou, an industrial hub in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in South China, has embraced rapid growth in attracting investment in recent years.

In the first seven months of this year, the total fixed asset investment in Liuzhou reached 118 billion yuan ($17.7 billion), ranking second among the cities in Guangxi, and increased 13.3 percent year on year.

This growth rate was 5.2 percent higher than the national average over the same period.

Besides rapid investment growth, the structure of Liuzhou's investment was also optimized, according to the Liuzhou Development and Reform Commission.

"One of the major goals of Liuzhou's economic development is to optimize its investment structure and to reinforce the real economy," said an oficial at Liuzhou Development and Reform Commission.

In the first half of this year, the city placed more emphasis on infrastructure and new technologies in all kinds of investment.

As a national auto parts manufacturing base, the city sees the auto sector as one of its pillar industries. The output value of the business reached 200 billion yuan last year, with more than 2 million vehicles produced.

At the beginning of this year, Liuzhou decided to reinforce its auto industry, especially high-end producing techniques such as using integrated circuits, industrial robots and 3-D printing.

The authority will also explore new producing models in the machinery and metallurgy sectors.

In addition to the real economy, the Liuzhou government has also accelerated its pace in developing tourism, modern agriculture, logistics and new materials and energy.

More than 1,642 trade agreements have been signed with Chinese traders from outside the city during the past five years, introducing $268 billion of investment into Liuzhou.

Last year, Liuzhou's GDP reached 231.1 billion yuan, an increase of 8 percent from the previous year. Also, its fiscal revenue reached 34.38 billion yuan, an increase of 8.6 percent.

(China Daily 09/28/2016 page12)