[Background]
What kind of modern megacity Yichang is striving for? The Municipal Government made it clear that focus will be laid on enhancing its industrial clusters, integrated services, and radiation effects on its neighboring areas. Over the past one year, in order to attain the goal of “to be the first in Central China and the third among the cities along the Yangtze River, and retain the second in Hubei Province”, the city has been accelerating the development of six “100-billion-RMB” industries, namely, fine chemicals, food and biomedicine, advanced equipment manufacturing, new materials, cultural tourism and modern logistics. Upholding the principle of bringing more major projects, fostering general industries, and constructing large technological parks, Yichang has been constantly strengthening its overall strengths. From January to September, its GDP reached 191.2 billion RMB with an increase of 11.4 percent and this growing rate ranked first in Hubei Province. In general, Yichang ranks second in Hubei Province in terms of GDP, the above-scale industrial added value, fixed asset investment and the total budget revenue of the local public finance.
Beautiful Water Makes Great Mountains; Thriving Industries Make the Prosperous Yichang
Yichang strives to build itself as a modern megacity featuring being “large and strong, outstanding and beautiful”, which is to be backed up by the development of modern industries.
Projects have laid the foundation for the development of industries. In recent years, Yichang has made great progress in introducing and constructing major industrial projects, people’s livehood projects and urban construction projects, which are of great value to its overall development. From January to September, altogether 800 projects, with an investment over 100 million RMB for each, were under construction; the growth rate reaches 42.1 percent; the number of its industrial enterprises above designated size reaches 1157, which is a net increase of 147 over the previous year. At the same time, over 555 enterprises (152 more than the same period of last year) have obtained an output value of more than one hundred million RMB.
With the strong support of the projects, the city has sped up the development of six “100-billion-RMB” industries-fine chemicals, food and biomedicine, advanced equipment manufacturing, new materials, cultural tourism and modern logistics. And through industrial transferring and upgrading, the city quickens the pace of constructing an international modern industrial structure with specific Yichang characteristics. So far, the total output value of the six industries has reached 360.305 billion RMB, increasing by 17.6 percent when compared with the same period of last year.
Discarding the Dross and Keeping the Essential - The New Orientation for Traditional Industries
On November 19, Hubei Sanning Chemical Company, Ltd. produced 340.4 tons of qualified caprolactam within one day, signifying that it realized its maximum production capacity ensured by its first-phase project involving 200,000 tons of annual production capacity. This capacity also exceeded its designed capacity by 110 percent, reaching the European standard for product quality.
In recent years, Sanning Company has discarded the backward capacities such as super phosphate and ammonium bicarbonate, and invested 5 billion RMB to construct its first-phase project aiming to realize an annual production capacity of 200,000 tons of caprolactam. By adopting the advanced green technology, it has entered the high-end caprolactam market; by utilizing recycle technology, it has reduced its production cost to the lowest nationwide. All these are milestone events for the company in its transformation and the production upgrading as well.
Last November, Huang Chuping, Party Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, made the following remark while he was attending at the 18th CPC National Congress, “The beautiful environment of the Three Gorges has been obtained through great efforts and therefore must be well protected. We should not repeat the mistake entailed by the extensive economic mode of development which is not environment-friendly.”
Chemical industry, the first industry whose output value reached over 100 million, is faced with the bottleneck of resources and increasing environmental pressures. So discarding the dross and keeping the essential, namely, innovative development, is essential to sustain its growth. In the next three years, Yichang will invest 50 billion RMB in the chemical industry, among which as high as 40 billion RMB will be used for its technical improvement.
As a result of the popularization of the circular economy pattern, more than ten chemical companies have moved out of urban areas and into industrial parks that are located in the suburbs, and about ten billion chemical projects featuring high-energy consumption and high pollution have not been granted the admission to Yichang.
New materials industry has become one of “100-billion RMB” industries that are to help Yichang to realize its dream of building a modern megacity. “Among the twelve cities of four provinces selected nationwide, Yichang is the only pilot city brought into the line with the state plan for the new material industry aggregation development.” said Jiang Zhengxiong, Director of Yichang Municipal Development and Reform Commission.
At present, a large number of new material enterprises have settled down in Yichang, which include Yichang Xincheng Graphite Co., Ltd.- aiming to exploit new functional materials, Yichang CSG Polysilicon Co., Ltd., SpinIC Co., Ltd., JCS Solar Co., Ltd.; those companies that aim to manufacture advanced structural materials, such as East Sunshine Raffinal Co., Ltd. and Hubei Yihua Group Co., Ltd.; those companies that are developing high-performance composite, such as No. 612 Factory and Sanning Chemical Co., Ltd.. All of them occupy important positions in their respective industries nationwide.
Currently, Yichang possesses 125 above-scale enterprises, 62 enterprises with an annual output value of over 100 million RMB, and 12 enterprises with an annual output value of over 1 billion RMB.
“Made in Yichang” Becomes Popular in the Field of Equipment Industry
On May 16, with the accomplishment of “the Urban Ark” AUV production in Yichang Branch of ZXauto, Yichang became an integrated part of the automobile industry in Hubei Province.
On the same day, Yichang and the Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd. (hereafter referred to as CGA) signed “Agreement on Support from Government for Automobile Industry”. Since the CGA Group and ZXauto invested 10 billion RMB in Yichang, the CGA Group now can produce 300,000 automobiles per year. It aims to realize the goal of producing 450 thousand automobiles in the long run, and achieve an annual output value of 30 billion RMB.
Meanwhile, the CGA Group invested 2 billion RMB for the introduction of 15 related companies into Yichang, helping Yichang automobile industrial park extend to about 8,840 mu (5.7 million square kilometers). Now an integrated industry chain of automobile and parts has been formed in Yichang.
The settlement of the CGA Group, the ZXauto and the China Auto Parts Industry Company is the epitome that Yichang has seized the great historic opportunity entailed by the national strategy of accelerating the development of Central China. It also follows the tides of revitalizing of the equipment manufacturing industry and the national and international industrial transfer.
Through the measures such as upgrading and reconstruction, assert restructuring, integration and extension of industry chain, Yichang has built a special base of equipment manufacturing industry. By 2016, many industrial parks will contribute to the development of Yichang equipment manufacturing industry. They are: Xiaoting Automotive Industrial Park, Dongshan Machine Tool Manufacturing Industrial Park, Dianjun New Materials Manufacturing Industrial Park, Yiling Electrical Cables Industrial Park, Baiyang Ship Supporting Industrial Park, and Jiangnan Equipment Manufacturing Industrial Park.
So far, Yichang has possessed a number of "world-class" products, such as deep-dive technology, image pattern matching processing, the remote image scanning and tracing technology, the first 3.5-meter-long numerical-controlled slot milling machine in the world, the first intelligent marine diesel engine of low velocity and high power, which was produced by Yichang Marine Diesel Engine Co., Ltd., and the composite silent blade manufactured by HXF Saw Co., Ltd., etc..
Emerging Industries are Prospering under Favorable Conditions
In recent years, the food and biomedicine industry has witnessed the establishment of quite a few famous brands such as Daohuaxiang Liqour, Zhijiangdaqu Liquor, Huamnwell Pharmaceutical, and Angel Yeast, etc.. They have become the pillar and competitive industries in Yichang. And the specialty product industries of agriculture, such as oranges, teas, livestock rearing and aquaculture, are developing at an unprecedented rate.
Yichang, with its the unique geographical and resources advantages, has given birth to the outstanding emerging industries like food and biomedicine industry, tourism, logistics, etc..
So, the Three Gorges Pivotal Port and the New Three Gorges Tourist Area have become the main bases of Yichang urban construction for achieving the goal of a megacity.
By 2030, the freight transportation volume through the Three Gorges section will reach 260 million tons. Yichang Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government have seized the opportunity to construct the Three Gorges Pivotal Port, with the Yangtze River as the main line and Xiangxi River and Qingjiang River as complementary areas for shipping development. In addition, Three Gorges International Cruise Center and nine core operating areas that include Maoping Operating Area and Baiyang Operating Area are also included in the blueprint for the Pivotal Port. Meanwhile, the Municipal Government has also worked out the plan to develop modern logistics. The logistics parks to be built include: Changjiang Zhicheng Logistics Park, The Three Gorges Airport and other eight large logistics parks along the Yangtze River, with primary attention given to develop the Three Gorges Logistics Park, Yunchi Logistics Park and other sixty-two key logistics projects. In addition, the Government will actively develop port-vicinity industry, airport-vicinity industry and railway-vicinity industry. In 2016, a comprehensive transportation network that connect Wuhan and Chongqing and cover various kinds of transportation modes will be established in Yichang and serve the whole nation.
Yichang is rich in the cultural and natural resources. For example, there are the Three Gorges, the Three Gorges Dam, the Qingjiang River, Qu Yuan\'s Hometown, to name just a few. So the cultural tourism industry has become the most dynamic emerging industry. The New Three Gorges tourist area under construction include "two dams, two islands and one gorge", covering a total area of 671.42 square kilometers. The goal of the city is by 2016, to possess four 5A grade scenic spots in the New District, to receive 40 million tourists annually and attain 40 billion RMB in terms of the overall tourism revenue.
In the near future, beautiful Yichang will not be just a transit city, but also a tourist destination with great sceneries, excellent environment and convenient transportation network.