Liaoning (Yingkou) Coastal Industry Base has been given strategic importance as the Liaoning provincial government maps out its Five Points and One Line development strategy, said mayor Yingkou Zhao Huaming on Tuesday.

Zhao Huaming, mayor of Yingkou, gestures at a press conference in Yingkou, Northeast China's Liaoning Province, April 25, 2006. [Chen Xu/youth.cn]

The industry base is in southern Yingkou,some 160 km away from Shenyang and Dalian, the two biggest and most important cities in the province.

Liaoning CPC province committee secretary Li Keqiang, said Yingkou has great development potential when he visited the city on August 26, 2005.

Li suggested the Five Points and One Line development strategy while in Yingkou at the end of 2005.

Liaoning(Yingkou) Coastal Industry Base is under construction on Tuesday, April 25, 2006. [Chen Xu/youth.cn]

The industrial base has a planned area of 120 square km, with a 40 square km starting zone, 25 square km for industry and the remaining 15 for living and commercial use.

The project had an initial capital of 420 million yuan (US$52 million) from the provincial development bank and a commercial bank, Zhu Yili said on Tuesday.

The first phase of the industrial land backfill project will begin this year. A total of 15 square km is expected to be backfilled by the end of the year.

The industrial area is designed for to develop the refined chemicals industry, equipment manufacturing, new materials, microelectronics, bio-engineering, plastic products and garments.

The land in the area is mostly deserted and salty, lowering devlopment costs. Land asset price evaluation, feasibility studies on the coastal industrial infrastructure and impact assessment have been completed.