China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Xiang’an uses geographical advantages to spur development and commerce
Xiang’an district, located in the east of Xiamen, Fujian province, is a region with vitality and growth potential based on its geographic advantages and cross-island development plan, local officials said.
Xiang’an is a hub of the province’s land, sea and air transport system covering the airport, five subway lines, Xiang’an Bridge, Intercity R1 Line, Third East Corridor, EMU Xiang’an Station, Fuxia High-speed Railway and Xiamen East Station.
Xiang’an and Jinmen face each other across the sea, and the closest distance between the two is only 1,800 meters. Xiang’an is an important hometown of overseas Chinese and the ancestral home of Taiwan compatriots. There are nearly 400,000 Taiwan residents in Xiang’an.
Xiang’an is also one of the important bases for Taiwan-based enterprises.
There are 300 Taiwan-funded enterprises such as AUO and TPV, of which 35 can generate an annual output value of 45.505 billion yuan.
Xiang’an has the country’s only Taiwan-based commodity trading market, with a total of nearly 700 million yuan in Taiwan’s merchandise imports and exports as well as a total trade volume of nearly 8 billion yuan.
It is the largest Taiwan food distribution center on the Chinese mainland and was praised by the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council as an iconic project for “cross-Straits people-to-people exchanges”.
The coastline of Xiang’an is 87 kilometers, and the ecological control line area is 202 square kilometers, accounting for nearly 50 percent of the land area of the whole district and nearly 20 percent of the city.
In recent years, Xiang’an has fought a tough battle against pollution, passed two rounds of central environmental protection inspections.
It has completed 77 letters and visits assigned to rectification and sales, as well as 50,000 mu, or 3335 hectares, of marine aquaculture, accounting for 70 percent of the city’s total. Xiang’an is an important advanced manufacturing base in Xiamen.
It has planned and laid out industrial concentration areas such as the Torch Xiang’an Industrial Zone, the Xiang’an High-Tech Industrial Base, the Xiang’an Industrial Park, and the province’s first digital economy industrial park.
It covers an area of 18.7 sq km. The planned industrial output value is expected to reach 153.7 billion yuan, ranking second in the city.
There are currently 369 industrial enterprises and 263 high-tech enterprises as well as the development and formation of the flat panel display industry led by Tianma Microelectronics, Electric Glass, and TPV Display, the semiconductor and integrated circuit industries led by Leadcore Technologies and Xiamen Hongxin Electron-tech and the mechanical equipment industry led by ABB and AVIC Lithium.
With the construction and commissioning of major projects such as AVIC Lithium Battery and Tianma Sixth Generation, Xiang’an has consolidated and improved its advantages in advanced manufacturing.
In the 17 years since the establishment of the district, its average annual growth rate of GDP has been 18.8 percent, and the growth rate has remained first in the city for three consecutive years.
The average annual growth rate of industrial output value above designated size is 27.2 percent and the average annual growth rate of total fiscal revenue is 28.3 percent. Eleven benchmarking indicators across the province have passed the line for two consecutive years,
and the city is the only one in Xiamen.
In the first quarter of this year, fixed asset investment continued to maintain stable growth, with a total of 16.31 billion yuan, ranking
first in the city. The completed fixed asset investment of Xiang’an reached more than 280 billion yuan during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), ranking top among all districts across the province.