Xiangzhou District, Zhuhai

From 2012 to 2016, Xiangzhou District of Zhuhai increased its GDP by 30 percent to 105.7 billion yuan ($16 billion), accounting for half of the city's current total. The economic growth was achieved in sync with an overall social advance, according to official statistics.

Xiangzhou governors have followed the principle that "development is the first task" over the past five years. Priority has been given to high-end manufacturing, high-tech industries and high-end services with focus on enhancing their advantages through innovation and a firm grasp of the essence of development in today's world.

Moreover, clusters of emerging industries such as e-commerce and the headquarters economy have sprung up as important economic engines for the district. The government's endeavors to generate an agglomeration effect have paid off, not only benefiting those fields but also having an impact in the manufacturing sector.

Official reports show that the year 2016 saw a year-on-year increase of 11.8 percent in the total output value of advanced equipment manufacturing enterprises above the designated scale; the total amount is more than 39 percent of above-the-designated-scale industrial output value.

Xiangzhou is home to 284 national high and new tech enterprises, 36 percent of the city's total.

Gree Electric Appliances, headquartered in Xiangzhou, already the world's largest air conditioner enterprise, has been consistently served and aided in every development stage to pursue a wider success in line with the country's rejuvenation goals. Zhuhai Seine Technology, set up in 2006, has successfully developed Pantum, China's first laser printer with independent core technologies. Such business giants are playing a leading role with innovations in the smart home and intelligent grid; their business philosophy has been matured in every industry and trade.

Xiangzhou is currently home to 284 national high and new tech enterprises. Three state-level laboratories, 14 public technology platforms and five new-type R&D centers have settled down there.

Xiangzhou has built a total of 110 community parks over the past five years.                                  

On the other hand, Xiangzhou as the main urban zone accommodates approximately half of the city's total permanent resident population. This group has been experiencing improvements in life convenience and quality through an array of livelihood-focused projects funded with 11 billion yuan ($1.7 billion) over the past five years. The money, a big proportion of fiscal expenditure, was spent on community parks building, education resources allocation, community-based social governance, and environmental protection.

A senior government official hailed the last five years as showing overall multi-dimensional progress and is looking forward to new development opportunities arising from the opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB) and the implementation of the Belt & Road Initiative.

Intelligent manufacturing is riding high on the innovation tide. [Photos by Cheng Lin / Zhuhai Daily]