Zhanjiang to focus on developing port industries

Improve city infrastructure

Zhanjiang will accelerate building a modern transportation system to optimize its location conditions as a strategically pivotal city on the 21st Century Marine Silk Road. The high speed railway construction, the Zhanjiang airport relocation project and the construction of a 400,000 ton-grade channel in Zhanjiang Port will be given priority this year to better interconnect the city with other cities and areas in China and other countries.

Liang Zhicheng, vice mayor of Zhanjiang city, appealed once again on the annual session of the CPPCC’s Guangdong Committee to extend the high speed railway to the port city, which will significantly shorten commute time from Zhanjiang to major cities in Guangdong and around the nation, such as Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing.

The Zhanjiang airport relocation project, with a total investment of six billion yuan (about one billion dollars), will serve a broader area in West Guangdong to facilitate the area’s development.

In the meantime, more efforts and financial input will be devoted to urban construction in the city to make it a dynamic ecological coastal city with high livable index, Liu Xiaohua said.

Deepen opening-up

Zhanjiang will actively conduct cooperation and exchanges with countries and regions along the 21 Century Marine Silk Road to further opening-up to the world, Liu Xiaohua told reporters at the press conference.

He said that the ASEAN　industrial park will be forged into a key platform for expanding economic and trading cooperation with ASEAN countries. Zhanjiang enjoys geographical proximity to most countries in Southeast Asia.

Liu Xiaohua also said enterprises in Zhanjiang were encouraged to “go out” to the overseas market, and the customs clearance procedures will be streamlined and other foreign trade services will be improved to make the port city’s foreign trade more attractive for local enterprises as well as foreign investment.

Zhanjiang will hold the Provincial Games in 2015, which will be a great opportunity to showcase the city’s new image to the outside world.