Industrial zones, parks spur economic growth

The bridge built by China Railway 15th Bureau Group is part of a highway linking Datong and Hunyuan. [Photo by Ruan Yang for China Daily]

Shanxi's development zones and industrial parks are showing their increasingly important role in attracting investment and promoting economic transformation and growth, as they recently welcomed a great number of projects.

These zones and parks simultaneously held their project signing, construction and production ceremonies on Aug 31.

Lan Fo'an, secretary of the Shanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, was present at the Jinzhong National Agricultural High-Tech Zone, the main venue of the ceremonies.

When addressing the Jinzhong ceremony, Lan said investment in fixed assets is one of the major drivers to push Shanxi's economy onto a fast track of development and promote local economic transformation. He added that the boom in investment is also a show of confidence from the business community.

This was the third time this year for Shanxi's development zones and industrial parks to hold such ceremonies.

The Aug 31 event saw the signing of agreements on 263 investment projects, the groundbreaking for 231 projects and the operation of another 199 throughout the province.

The zones and parks in Shanxi held this year's first events for projects on Feb 22, with the signing of 303 projects, the launch of 310 and operation of 300.

The second events were held on May 29. The zones and parks in the central city of Jinzhong were the shining performers on that occasion, securing a total of 22 projects with pledged investment totaling 14.9 billion yuan ($2.05 billion).They also saw the launch of 23 projects with a total investment of 5.14 billion yuan and the operation of 21 projects with a combined investment of 7.67 billion yuan.

Many of the projects launched recently in Shanxi are crucial facilities to improve the basic infrastructure system in the province, especially those related to transport, environmental and livelihood improvements.

A highway linking the city of Datong and Hunyuan, a county under Datong's administration, is one such project. It is designed as a major transport facility in the Datong Economic and Technological Development Zone.

A key part of the project, a bridge with a main span of 120 meters, was successfully installed on Sept 8.Extending over a railway line, the bridge's installation was a challenging task because the operation of the railway could not be interrupted, according to Zhu Rijie, deputy chief of the development zone.

He noted that the completion of this bridge can ensure that the Datong-Hunyuan highway will become operational as scheduled.

Chen Junqi contributed to this story.