30 years after it was founded, tech area has become Zhanjiang′s biggest growth engine, Xu Jingxi reports.

Embracing the 30th anniversary of its founding, the Zhanjiang Economic and Technological Development Zone, which has grown to be the port city′s biggest engine of economic development, is helping realize the city′s dream of becoming an industrial giant.

The site was a stretch of barren land when the State Council approved the zone′s establishment in 1984, but now it bustles with rumbling machines building more high-rise buildings on the land.

The zone was one of the first 14 state-level development zones that the central government approved in the 1980s.

The tasks the State Council assigned to the zone were to attract foreign investment, import advanced technologies and collaborate with Chinese partners to speed up economic development, as well as to catch up with developed coastal cities and serve the hinterland.

In its early years, the zone mainly relied on aquatic product processing and garment processing industries to bring commercial and industrial prosperity to the agricultural city in western Guangdong province.

The aquatic product processing industry thrived on the port city′s rich fishery resources. The garment processing industry, with investment from Hong Kong, symbolized the zone′s efforts to develop an export-oriented economy.

The value of exports from the zone in 1991 was $51.53 million, accounting for 26 percent of the city′s total and six times that of 1985, the zone′s inaugural year.

Zone to make city an industrial giant

The exports also traveled farther, from Hong Kong and Macao to the United States, Canada and other Asian countries including Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam.

Industrial engines

In 2006, the Zhanjiang Economic and Technological Development Zone expanded from 9.2 square kilometers to 19.2 sq km by establishing an experimental area on Donghai Island to enlarge the zone′s capacity to develop a wider range of industries.

Besides aquatic product processing and garment processing, the zone has attracted investors in petrochemical engineering, specialty paper-making, electromechanical communications, biomedicine, food and beverages and package printing.

Donghai Island, the country′s fifth-largest island that stretches across 286 sq km on the South China Sea, has enough environmental capacity to house large heavy chemical plants.

It won the bids to become the location for two mega projects - an iron and steel project facility being built by Baosteel Group and a petrochemicals complex that is a joint venture by Sinopec and Kuwait Petroleum Corp.

More than 20 billion yuan ($3.22 billion) has been invested in the iron and steel plant, which will produce 8.75 million metric tons of steel annually, starting in September.

The petrochemicals complex is designed to process 15 million metric tons of crude oil and 800,000 of ethylene annually. The crude oil project is expected to go into operation in 2016 and the ethylene project in 2017.

Zhanjiang was given a golden opportunity at the start of the 2010s to make a leap in economic development, with the National Development and Reform Commission approving the construction of the petrochemicals complex in 2011 and the iron and steel project in 2012.

It marked the start of the massive development of the Zhanjiang Economic and Technological Development Zone. The two projects are expected to attract investment of 460 billion yuan for complementary projects in the industry chain, such as machinery manufacturing and synthetic rubber production.

Balanced development

The iron and steel and petrochemicals industries are two engines for Zhanjiang to rise as an industrial giant by the end of 2016.

Adding to their strength is a cluster of paper plants in construction in the aim to develop the country′s largest paper-making base, especially in the field of specialty paper-making, on Donghai Island, with investment from China Paper Corp and Guangdong Guanhao High-Tech Co.

The public is concerned about environmental pollution the three projects may cause, but Mayor Wang Zhongbing has vowed to safeguard Zhanjiang′s blue skies while pursuing economic growth.

He called the city′s mechanism for balancing environmental protection and growth a "two-blue" strategy.

"One blue represents the economy growing. The other blue is the blue sky. That means we have to balance development and environmental protection," Wang said.

The iron and steel plant and oil refinery, being built only 500 meters apart, will operate on a "circular" system Zhanjiang is piloting, in which each plant utilizes the other′s waste and they share infrastructure to improve efficiency.

For example, the hydrogen from the iron and steel mill′s coke-oven gas will be used to fuel the petrochemicals plant.

"The Zhanjiang Economic and Technological Development Zone is the city′s No 1 driver of economic growth and shoulders the mission of leading the city to rise," said Xu Shun, the zone′s Party chief.

"We will ensure the smooth construction of key projects - the iron and steel industrial park, the railways on Donghai Island and the central business district - and retain our pioneering spirit to achieve more successes."