Zhanjiang, a coastal city in western Guangdong, is a comparatively small city in the province when measured by economy. However, it has found its competitiveness to accelerate its overall development - port economy. Last year, China's Ministry of Communication issued a plan on developing coastal ports, listing Zhanjiang as a main port in the southwest port cluster of the country. "Port economy will be the biggest drive for Zhanjiang's development" said Xu Shaohua, Party Secretary of Zhanjiang.

PORT PROJECTS

In recent years, Zhanjiang has launched three port projects, including 300,000-ton crude oil quay, 200,000-ton ore quay expansion and 250,000-ton waterway, which had laid a solid foundation for the city's port economy development.

In 2006, the city generated a GDP of 77 billion RMB with an annual increase of 12.8 percent, the highest growth in the past 11 years. Its heavy chemistry and other port-related industries contributed an industrial output of 41.8 billion RMB.

OIL PROJECTS

These port and other infrastructure projects helped Zhanjiang in winning large cooperation projects with the nation's three largest oil companies. Last year, Sinopec approved Zhanjiang Dongxing's crude oil project, worth 1.98 billion RMB and will raise the plant's oil production to 8 million tons. CNOOC had already begun its 3 million ton oil project and 3 million ton asphalt project in the city which is expected to yield 11.3 billion RMB per year in the future. CNPC's 946,000-cubic-meter orimusion oil storage project in Zhanjiang Port will bring 10 million tons oil throughput every year, after which it invested 580 million RMB to expand its 98,000-cubit-meter oil fuel deport.

According to Zhanjiang Customs, the city handled a total of 102,631 standard containers in 2006, up 27.6 percent over 2005. The provinces and regions in southwest China are big customers for Zhanjiang port, contributing 80 percent of the cargo volume and 55 percent of the import and export value of the port.

Zhanjiang plans to develop its port by enhancing goods transferring, logistics and export-oriented processing industry and expects to handle over 100 million tons of goods in the year 2008. As for the port's long-term plans, the city will upgrade itself into an international shipping and logistics centre in the region. With this industry development plan, Zhanjiang aims to yield 135 billion RMB of GDP by the year 2011 and to attract 140 billion RMB worth of investments.

Editor: Yan