[photopress:zone_shantou.jpg,full,alignright]The coastal city of Shantou has outlined a ‘three economic belts’ development strategy to build on its leading position in Guangdong province and its position as one of China’s four special economic zones.

The strategy includes an urban economic belt in the east, an industrial economic belt in the south and an ecological economic belt in the west.

Huang Zhigang, Shantou’s Party secretary. ssiad, ‘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.’

With a planned area of 80 sq km along the coast, construction of the belt will begin in October. Of the planned land, about 20 sq km has to be reclaimed from the sea.

The city currently has 2,470 people per sq km in its urban area, five times higher than Guangdong province’s average.
Construction of a 21-km-long sea wall and a 16-km-long road along the coast will soon begin.

According to Liao Xiaoping, deputy director of the Shantou development and reform bureau, the industrial belt will mainly develop heavy industries, including oil and chemicals, electricity, high and new technology, equipment and manufacturing, oceanic industry and logistics.

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).

Chen Yaowu, an official with the Shantou economic and trade bureau, says that development of three economic belts will help attract more overseas and domestic investment.
Source: China Daily