REGIONAL> Development
Opening-up powers Yantai development
By Mu Zhiyong and Zhao Xiangyang (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-11-26 07:49

 Opening-up powers Yantai development

The blue sea makes Yantai, Shandong province, more attractive to investors. Photo by Hou Heliang

Yantai, one of the first 14 coastal cities in China approved to open up, embarked the process in 1984.

"Great change has taken place," said Tian Zengcheng, who was the deputy director of the managing committee of Yantai Economic and Technological Development Area (YEDA) 24 years ago.

Along coastal stretches of bare sand in Shandong province, the YEDA was established in October of 1984.

Now YEDA is a modern industrial city with skyscrapers lining the once-deserted beach.

It has yielded great returns, with about 12,000 earthmoving machines made there sold overseas every year as nearly 800 cars rolls off its production lines every day and about 8,000 mobile phones are produced every hour.

The business environment has drawn investors from home and abroad, including 43 Fortune 500 enterprises and more than 60 world-famous multinationals from 37 countries and regions including the United States, Japan and South Korea.

Industrial clusters have been formed in the zone, manufacturing autos, mobile phones, computers, equipment and even ships are now based in the zone.

Expansive facilities also produce polyurethane, spare parts, 3G mobile phones, computers and consumer electronic products.

Due to its efforts protecting environment, YEDA is held up as a model area by the United Nations Environment Programme and the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China. It is also a pilot region for a cyclic economy in China.

Growth potential

Covering one-60th of the city, YEDA generates one-sixth of its GDP, one-fifth of revenues, a third of production value from high technology and half of the city's total import and export value.

Comprehensive evaluations place YEDA sixth among the 54 State-level industrial areas.

"The opening-up boosted Yantai's economy and it is playing a decisive role in the city's current and future economic development," said Sun Yongchun, Party chief of Yantai.

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