Forum to bolster pillar industry growth

A forum on construction industry development is scheduled to be held in Pingtan, Fujian province on Feb 21 as part of the city's broad push to advance that sector.

Pingtan is an island city located off the coast of Fujian and the closest place on the mainland to Taiwan.

Construction has long been a pillar industry for Pingtan. Statistics shows that about 70 percent of the tunnel-building projects across the country are undertaken by companies registered in the city. There are roughly 100,000 people from Pingtan involved in the industry.

In a bid to boost industrial growth, the local government established a special fund of 20 billion yuan ($3.1 billion) earlier last year and proposed a goal of lifting the scale of the construction industry to 30 billion yuan by 2020.

The forum, to be held for the first time, will invite experts, scholars and entrepreneurs in the sector to brainstorm and explore new ways to make that growth happen.

A three-day exposition of a great variety of construction facilities and machinery is also to be held on the forum sidelines.