Dandong city's four major economic zones along the Yalu River and the city's coastline achieved great progress in the first half of this year. It made more investments in infrastructure, project construction and management.

The four major economic zones - Xincheng, Donggang, Qianyang and Dagushan- were constructed from a fixed asset investment worth 18.12 billion yuan ($2.83 billion), accounting for 80 percent of the city's total fixed assets. The foreign investment in actual use amounted to $190 million and export stood at $743 million, 66.5 percent of the total export value of the city. Dandong port yielded 33.92 million tons of cargo throughputs, up 28 percent year on year.

Investment in infrastructures and industrial projects in the economic zones has stimulated the city's economic growth in the first half of this year. Dandong invested 2.84 billion yuan ($443.9 million) on infrastructure construction. The city received 246.7 million yuan ($38.56) from the provincial financial subsidy fund.

The four economic zones have more projects underway. In the first six months, 185 projects with a total investment of 38.4 billion yuan ($600.19 million) were approved for construction. Among them, 47 projects are each worth more than 200 million yuan ($31.26 million), totaling 19.1 billion yuan ($2.99 billion).

The 227.78-square-kilometer economic zones will focus on its urban and port development along with the city's construction of political, economic, commercial, trade and cultural centers.

The city's leading industries comprise of mechanical instruments and meters, modern services, stainless steel deep processing plants, environment protection materials, auto and component manufacturing, textile, apparels and modern logistics.

Edited by Chen Zhilin and Tania Lee