With money from idle land, Nanling transforms from woeful to wealthy

Nanling is a village in Shenzhen well-known these days for its affluence, but it used to be known for the opposite.

Through developing marketoriented industries, the village successfully eliminated poverty and achieved assets of billions of yuan.

About four decades ago, Nanling villagers depended on farming to make a living. They could barely survive, and many people fled. Then, in 1980, a policy establishing a special economic zone in Shenzhen brought them new hope.

Investors swarmed in and factories sprung up. The local government needed some of the villagers’ idle land and paid them a large transfer fee for it.

Nanling residents could have taken the money and started new homes elsewhere. Instead, they decided to jump on the local economic development bandwagon and transform their hometown.

They used the money to improve fundamental infrastructure in order to attract manufacturing companies. Since then, hundreds of millions of yuan have been poured into building factories and supporting facilities, covering an area of more than 1 million square meters.

As a result, the village community brought in investments of more than 1 billion yuan and over 50 factories manufacturing famous brands, including ZTE.

The village’s income took off and kept steadily growing. Its average annual per capita income now sits at about 150,000 yuan ($21,400), three times Shenzhen’s average, and the village community’s collective fixed assets have reached 3.5 billion yuan.

However, competition has become fierce since many other village communities joined the fray and began leasing space for factories, offices and residential buildings.

Zhang Yubiao, a native of Nanling who serves as the village’s Party chief, said the village needs to find new momentum to maintain sustainable development. Incubating high-tech startups could be the answer, and Shenzhen appears to have the same idea.

“We should keep up with new trends and not be left behind in the city’s industrial upgrading,” he said.

He explained that Nanling’s method is to select, invest and incubate, rather than just rent out offices to any startup team. The village has started to build hightech office buildings, and last year it set up a fund of 500 million yuan from its collective income to invest in startups in strategic and emerging industries such as life science, 5G telecommunication, chip design and artificial intelligence.

So far, many startups, including an intelligent retail service provider, an underwater robot maker and a life science laboratory, have settled in the high-tech parks in the village, which has been transformed into a modern district.

“From farming and the building of factories to incubating high-tech firms, I hope one day I can bring my fellow villagers to ring the opening bell at a stock exchange,” Zhang said.

With sustainable economic growth, the village is also improving living standards. New schools, libraries and other infrastructure have been built up as the village aims to become a green and modern zone.

Last year, he got an annual benefit of around 7,600 yuan, while at the same time working as a longshoreman, which brings him 26,000 yuan a year.

“My daughter has successfully applied for a school grant, so my family has less financial pressure now,” he said. “What’s more, I make much more money than before and I am very content with my life.”

So far, Dongxing has set up 128 cooperatives with 3,300 members, among whom 296 people like Xiang Guangquan have escaped poverty.

According to Xiang Jiancheng, head of Hezhou village who is also the developer of the cooperative mechanism, his purpose was to attract idle laborers who tend to have no knowledge of trade.

“A leader with good knowledge of international trade and law and a trustworthy accountant are the core and critical positions of each cooperative,” the developer said. “Other members are well organized and are guided in the business by the two leaders. Meanwhile, members help each other and assume different jobs during the whole business process.”

Saving on business costs is the key advantage of joining a cooperative, said Xiang Jiancheng, who established the first cooperative in 2013.

“Twenty people together can import as much as 160,000 yuan in products at one time tax free, and also benefit from a much lower wholesale price,” he said.

People living along the border in Dongxing imported and exported 18.1 billion yuan worth of products last year.

According to Zhang Hui, director of the Dongxing poverty alleviation office, “the cooperative is effective in helping villagers expand their trade business and increase income from collaboration. It is easy for other border regions across the nation to imitate. So far, the mechanism has been promoted in Xinjiang, Yunnan and Hainan.”