Comprehensive plan financed to spur industrial growth

The gross industrial output value of the Zhuhai Special Economic Zone is to double to 800 billion yuan ($119 billion) by 2021, according to the Implementation Plan for Developing & Expanding Real Economy issued by the municipal government on July 28.

The city will establish a 100 billion-yuan ($14.9 billion) industrial development fund and issue new policies and business incentives, according to the plan. The first-phase budgeted Fund of Funds is 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion).

The government-sponsored fund is designed to accelerate an effective financial supply system for Zhuhai. By attracting social capital through market-oriented professional operation, the account is expected to have an amplifying effect, making a large sum of money available for business financing.

The move is projected to give the city's real economy a boost and power Zhuhai's medium-and long-term development strategy, a government official claimed.

Sanzao Industrial Park 

According to the plan, Zhuhai will be home to more than 10 leading enterprises with 10+ billion yuan ($1.5 billion) in annual revenue each and more than 100 key companies with 1+ billion yuan ($148.8 million) each by 2021. The number of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with strong growth potential should surpass 1,000.

Value-added output of production-based service industry will account for about two thirds of Zhuhai's service sector while urban development competitiveness will reach the domestic top level by then, the plan states.

Xinqing Industrial Park [Photos by Zhang Zhou / Zhuhai Daily]

The implementation plan outlines 33 measures in 10 categories. They are intended to encourage innovation and technological transformation, construct specialized industrial parks, and ensure adequate industrial land.

Stimulating innovation

The policy calls for increased R&D investment. Every industrial enterprise in Zhuhai generating more than 500 million yuan ($74.4 million) in main business revenues will be required to have their own R&D institutions. Meanwhile, the government wants 50 percent of industrial enterprises above designated size to each establish an R&D institution by 2021.

Ensuring the industrial land supply

According to the plan, the Zhuhai government will strengthen land planning work to increase the amount of industrial land.

At least 50 percent of land approved for new construction each year should be used for industrial projects. The supply of new industrial plots made available each year should also be stabilized at no less than 150 sq km, in the medium to long term.

The plan also calls for enhanced overall management of industrial land, as well as specific control lines between designated industrial blocks.

Reforming operating pattern of industrial parks

The city government has been promoting the quality and efficiency of industrial parks in recent years, with special focus on construction of the Intelligent Industrial Park in the Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone in Tangjiawan Town and restructuring of Fushan Industrial Park in Doumen District. Measures have been taken to improve their efficiency and make them more market-oriented.

Innovations will be made in the parks' cooperative construction mechanism, with competitive enterprises encouraged to play a more active role, sharing both in the responsibilities and benefits of the reforms.

State-owned enterprises can be supported with direct government spending or commissioned to carry out land leveling, standardizing factory buildings, and improving infrastructure to better attract investment.  

Priority will be given to the introduction or construction of characteristic industrial parks as well as international cooperation platforms.

Preferential enterprise policies

Financial subsidies will be given to those applying to be new hi-tech enterprises.

Based on existing pre-tax deduction policy for companies' R&D expenses, enterprises will be offered an extra post-subsidy, according to the plan.

Those constructing a National Engineering Laboratory (NEL), National Key Laboratory, National Center for Manufacturing Innovation, National Engineering (Technology) Research Center, and National Enterprise Technology Center will be granted a maximum 10 million yuan ($1.49 million).

The government will also intensify incentives to encourage companies to undertake technical reforms to boost digitalization, intellectualization, and networking. These incentives will be available to all enterprises in the manufacturing industry that carry out technical reforms.