The coastal city of Zhanjiang in South China's Guangdong province has strengthened its ties with more than a dozen State-owned enterprises during a conference, which concluded in Guangzhou, the provincial capital on Feb 27.

The city secured a staggering capital input exceeding 58 billion yuan ($8.86 billion) for 16 projects by signing strategic cooperative agreements with representatives from those enterprises.

Big-name investors included China Huadian Corporation (CHD), China Metallurgical Group Corporation, China MCC5 Group Corporation and China Forestry Group Corporation.

CHD, one of China's five solely State-owned power companies, will shell out 10 billion yuan for a distributed generator system (genset) in Lianjiang, a county-level city of Zhanjiang. China MCC5 Group Corporation will also provide 10 billion yuan for an infrastructure project.

Other projects are primarily related to energy, logistics, and heavy chemical industries and all of them are going to be constructed or operational during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20).

"Zhanjiang has always maintained a good relationship with many State-owned enterprises, which have contributed a lot to the city's rapid development in recent years," said Liu Xiaohua, Party secretary of Zhanjiang government.

At present, the coastal city is home to a couple of projects under the cooperation with State-owned enterprises, such as the Zhanjiang Port, the China CNOOC Oil Nanhai West Group and the Zhanjiang Baosteel Base.

"With the development of the National 13th Five-Year Plan and Belt and Road Initiative, Zhanjiang will take the strategic cooperation with State-owned enterprises to the next level to attract more investment and make greater strides toward industrial development," said Liu.

Representatives from the Zhanjiang government and the State-owned enterprises sign cooperation agreements, on Feb 27. [Photo/zhanjiang.gov.cn]