Transformation, transport links bring fresh opportunities

In the 200-hectare industrial park funded by COSCO Nantong, trucks shuttle back and forth carrying steel plates and machine parts as cranes at the nearby port stretch out and place them for shipping.

With the nation's top technologies in offshore equipment manufacturing, COSCO started to plan the base five years ago. It is among a range of local companies looking seaward to expand markets and increase production through a restructured business model.

Not only the companies but also the local government is shifting its focus toward the ocean for greater development opportunities.

Nantong has a total land area of 8,000 square kilometers and sea area of nearly 10,000 sq km. The city government is planning to integrate resources both on land and at sea to restructure industries while improving the ecology and quality of life for residents.

In 2010, China's first trade center for the rights to use sea areas was established in Nantong. Last year the local government unveiled the nation's first regulations for managing mortgages on marine facilities and buildings.

The city now leads the nation in evaluated sea areas and their total value. The local government also encourages companies with high demand for land and logistics to move to costal areas.

The city's 216-km coastline has three ports and eight industrial parks covering more than 250 sq km that have attracted investment of more than 100 billion yuan ($16 billion).

Local companies mainly focus on shipbuilding, chemicals, offshore equipment and machinery manufacturing, modern logistics and tourism.

A long stretch of beach along Tongzhou Bay at the eastern end of the city is now home to the new Binhai industrial park where infrastructure including roads, factories and office buildings has been under construction for the past two years.

The park includes an education zone that has attracted branches from many universities. The first 194 postgraduate students from the Nantong center of Beihang University's software school have arrived. More than 2,000 students are expected to be enrolled in September.

In the next five to 10 years, the education zone will be home to 20 schools and 30 research institutes, said Shi Hongjie, deputy director of the Binhai park's administration committee.

At the same time, the Tongzhou Bay area will have a population of 100,000 and 400 companies in the service sector that generate output value of 50 billion yuan a year, he said.

Despite an advantageous position where the Yangtze River meets the sea, Nantong's economic development was slow due to poor transport until Sutong Bridge, the city's first over the Yangtze River connecting it with Suzhou, was completed in July 2008.

Three months later, the city's first seaport Yangkou was also completed.

With improved transportation and infrastructure, the city can now attract more investment and talented people, said local officials.

The city topped the province in GDP growth in 2008, and ranked No 1 among the 16 cities in the Yangtze River Delta circle the following year. In 2013, its GDP surpassed 500 billion yuan, double the figure in 2008.

More than half of local companies have business partnerships in Shanghai, with more than 75 percent of export-oriented goods and 70 percent of farm produce delivered to the nearby metropolis.

The city also joined with Shanghai and other cities in Jiangsu province to build 12 industrial parks, nine of them now in operation.

It now has six national-level industrial parks, the most recent of them the Nantong High-Tech Industrial Development Zone recognized at the beginning of this year.

COSCO Nantong now has nearly half of the offshore equipment orders in China. Its output value is expected to reach 10 billion yuan this year.

Another local company, Sanyou Group, used to specialize in textiles and clothing but it shifted its focus to emerging sectors. It has invested 560 million yuan in an environmental protection operation in the Binhai industrial park that will generate 2 billion yuan in annual sales when completed, said the company.

Contact the writers at zhangzhao@chinadaily.com.cn and dingcongrong@chinadaily.com.cn