Zhongshan promotes key projects as city continues to develop in Greater Bay Area

A batch of 52 selected projects, involving nearly 55 billion yuan ($7.75 billion) in investment, are attracting businesses to a historical development opportunity in Zhongshan, an emerging manufacturing and innovation hub in Guangdong province, said top city officials.

"The next five years are a critical development window for Zhongshan as the city continues to rise fast, and we are offering the opportunity to share the benefits and grow with Zhongshan," said Lai Zehua, Party secretary of Zhongshan.

He made the remarks at the opening ceremony of the 2020 Zhongshan Trade and Investment Fair & Top Talent Networking, one of the city's most significant events, on Saturday.

Affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the organizing committee staged a "cloud signing ceremony" using big data and a cloud platform to connect the physical venue online via a video link, in a bid to avoid crowds.

The 52 projects proposed are expected to generate more than 100 billion yuan in industrial output annually and contribute 4.3 billion yuan in tax revenue for the city, according to the organizing committee. All the projects are preliminarily ready and can be put under construction quickly once agreements are signed.

Nineteen of these projects, which will attract more than 1 billion yuan in investment each, are ranged in the fields of financial services, smart manufacturing, biomedicine, inspection and testing, headquarters economy and supply chain upgrading.

A total of 41 projects were signed at the opening ceremony.