Maoming Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The rapid development of the petrochemical industry led to the establishment in 2003 of the Maoming Petrochemical Industrial Zone. It was recognized by the Guangdong Provincial Government as a provincial high-tech industrial development zone in 2011.

Located at the junction of Maoming's central urban area and Binhai New City and the geometric center of Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan, the Maoming Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone is in the core of the Pan-Pearl River Delta, the southwestern region, and the China-ASEAN economic circle. With an airport, a sea port, the Shenzhen-Maoming and Guangzhou-Zhanjiang high-speed railways, the Guangzhou-Zhanjiang expressway, the Baotou-Maoming expressway, the Shantou-Zhanjiang expressway and the Yunfu-Maoming expressway, it is a transportation hub connecting Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan.

While continuously extending the petrochemical industry chain, the Zone adheres to "diversified industrial development". To build a circular economy and create a good environment for enterprises, it has been building pipelines and roads and improving the efficiency of administrative services. A number of Fortune 500 companies such as Sinopec, BASF, Air Liquide, and Sakata INX, and other well-known domestic enterprises such as Guangdong Oxiran, Jiahua Chemicals, and Shandong Lu Hua Chemicals have settled in the zone. They have formed a diversified industrial system, which has the chemical industry in the lead and also features equipment manufacturing, new materials, food processing, and e-commerce logistics. In 2016, the Zone achieved a total industrial output of 37.369 billion yuan. The added value of industries above designated size was 11.40 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.15 percent; the fixed asset investment was 5.54 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23.81 percent; and the full-caliber tax revenue was 2.85 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 64.82 percent.

In 2015, the National Development and Reform Commission and 10 other ministries and commissions jointly determined "industry-city integration of the Maoming Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone" as a national-level new urbanization pilot project, the only one in eastern, western and northern Guangdong.

With the concept of "industry-city integration", parks, a conference and exhibition center, the western Guangdong subsidiary agricultural product trading market, and Yifeng Home Furnishing City have been successively completed. A number of supporting facilities such as South China Business City, German-style Town, the SF Logistics Park and the Open-pit Mine Ecological Park are taking shape.

With the goal of creating a "state-level high-tech zone", the Maoming Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone has worked with the China University of Petroleum, Sun Yat-sen University, South China University of Technology and Guangdong University of Petrochemical Technology to establish innovative platforms such as the Collaborative Innovation Institute, the National Dangerous Chemicals Inspection and Testing Center, the Yuanmeng E-commerce Incubation Base, and the Guoxin Incubation Accelerator. With the increase of innovation ability, the Zone has been rated as a national demonstration base for industry-university-research institute cooperation and innovation. In 2015, one enterprise in the Zone -- Guangdong Xinhuayue Petrochemical Group -- was awarded the first prize of the Provincial Science and Technology Progress Awards for the Styrene Extraction R & D and Application Project.

The Zone has been listed among the Top 20 Chemical Industry Parks in China for three consecutive years, and has been rated as a national demonstration base for industry-university-research institute cooperation and innovation, a national petrochemical industry base of Torch Program, a national pilot zone for new urbanization, a provincial circular economy industrial park, a provincial major industrial cluster, a provincial demonstrative industrial park for industry transfer, a provincial five-star service park, and a provincial quality education zone.