[photopress:zones_shantou.jpg,full,alignright]As one of China’s four special economic zones, the coastal city Shantou has outlined a ‘three economic belts’ development strategy to build on its leading position in Guangdong province.
That is:
An urban economic belt in the east.
An industrial economic belt in the south.
An ecological economic belt in the west.
Huang Zhigang, Shantou’s Party secretary said, ‘The strategy, which is of great significance to the city’s future development in the next decade, will help develop Shantou into a real environmentally friendly coastal city,’
The eastern urban economic belt, which starts from the Gulf Bridge in the west to Laiwu in Chenghai district, will be developed into the city’s Central Business District.
Construction of the planned 80 sq km along the coast will begin in October.
Of the planned land, about 20 sq km has to be reclaimed from the sea.
Huang Zhigang said, ‘Shantou has long been affected by limited land resources, So we have to reclaim land from the sea for the new urban expansion development.’
Construction of a 21-km-long sea wall and a 16-km-long road along the coast will begin this year.
Huang Zhigang, perhaps a trifle optimisticly, said, ‘We will also build a long scenic belt along the eastern coast area, providing a real beachscape facing the South China Sea,’
Meanwhile, the southern industrial economic belt, which starts from the bonded zone and Guang’ao Port in the east to Chaonan district, has a planned area of about 117 sq km.
Within the industrial belt, construction has begun on Huaneng Haimen Power Plant, one of Guangdong’s key industrial projects during the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10).
Guang’ao Port, another big project within the industrial belt, has also started construction.
A natural deep-water port, Guang’ao Port has so far opened seven international routes to the Mediterranean, Middle East, Philippines and Japan, and 14 routes directly to 25 domestic ports.
A new railway section connecting to the Shenzhen-Xiamen Railway is being built.
Shantou will also develop an ecological economic belt in the west. Covering an area of about 388 sq km, the ecological belt will mainly develop environmentally friendly agriculture, hi-tech industries, a science and education zone and an urban tourism zone.
Source: China Daily
