Shandong

Yellow River Delta seeks investments

Updated: 2010-01-18 15:52

Since the Yellow River Delta became an eco-economic zone, the last untapped big river delta in China has become a new destination for domestic and overseas investments.

During the Yellow River Delta Development Trade Talks in Beijing yesterday, 77 contracts were signed that represent some 261 billion yuan in contractual investments.

The Yellow River Delta has 150 large projects in place, and is calling for investments from around the world. These projects stretch across a wide range of sectors, including agriculture, high technology, new energy projects and infrastructure building.

Six State-owned banks, including the Bank of China and China Development Bank, signed strategic cooperative contracts with Shandong to support the Yellow River Delta’s development.

"The efficient eco-economic zone at the Yellow River Delta will become the main economic zone around the Bohai Sea. It will promote the economy of the Bohai zone with a new development model", Du Ying, deputy director of China’s Development and Reform Committee, said during yesterday’s trade talks.

Du said the Yellow River Delta will become a model for other eco-economic zones in China with unique industrial bases and clusters.

"The approval of the development plan of the Yellow River Delta began a new era of development for the Delta", said Jiang Yikang, the Party secretary of Shandong Province. The State Council endorsed the Yellow River Delta plan in November.

The plan calls for building an “efficient eco-economic zone” compatible with the capacity of the resources and environment by 2015.

The Yellow River Delta stretches across Dongying, Binzhou, Weifang, Dezhou, Zibo and Yantai in China’s eastern Shandong province. The area covers 26,500 square kilometers, one-sixth of Shandong’s land area.

The Delta’s GDP was a reported 475.6 billion yuan in 2008, accounting for 15.3 percent of the total GDP of Shandong.

According to Shandong Development and Reform Committee reports, more than 80 contracts have been signed at investment events organized by the Dongying, Binzhou, Weifang and Yantai governments during the second half year of 2009. The contracts represent a reported 70 billion yuan investment.

The Yellow River Delta is home to more than 533,000 hectares of less developed land and one million hectares of shallow sea lands. An average of 1,000 hectares of new land is created annually by silt deposits from the Yellow River.

By Ju Chuanjiang and Zhao Ruixue (China Daily Shandong Bureau)

Editor: Li Jing