Nansha team nets 235b yuan in deals
An official delegation from Nansha district signed 17 co-operative agreements with deep-pocketed Hong Kong enterprises, universities and other entities yesterday.
Nansha, a state-level exemplary zone, announced in September last year that it would foster closer co-operation between Guangdong province, Hong Kong, Macau and the two key development zones Qianhai and Hengqin.
Nansha offers preferential policies in finance and taxation, and land management, and convenience for people from Hong Kong and the mainland.
Nansha is also an area for the policies arranged under the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement to be practised ahead of other places in Guangdong.
"Nansha, with its low population density, will be able to provide better living conditions for Hong Kong residents at a cheaper price," said Fan Hengshan, a department director of regional economies at the National Development and Reform Commission.
Nansha, which covers an area of 803 square kilometres, has a population of 720,000. That compares with more than seven million residents in Hong Kong, living in a developed area of 260 sq km, according to Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.
Ding Hongdu, the secretary of the Nansha district committee, said more than 1.5 trillion yuan would be invested in the district over the next 15 years, with the population of Nansha expected to reach 2.5 million by then.
The Guangzhou government had given Nansha a fixed investment growth target of 25 per cent this year, Ding said earlier this year.
A similar promotion would be carried out next in Singapore to woo investors.
According to official data, more than 450 Hong Kong enterprises have set up in Nansha, covering industries from manufacturing and leasing to commercial services.
Total investment has reached US$5.68 billion.
In the beginning of this year, 156 projects had been preliminarily put into effect, involving an investment of 370 billion yuan.
