Yantai opens 'golden districts' to foreigners
YANTAI, a coastal industrial city in Shandong province, is stepping up the development of its real estate industry with more land being offered for foreign participation.
Vice-Mayor Zhang Huafu said Yantai had decided to offer 14 pieces of land in ''golden districts'', totalling 8.6 million sq m, for redevelopment or new projects.
He said the latest offering followed the successful lease of 15 pieces of land, out of 18 plots put up for foreign participation last year.
According to Mr Zhang, the latest 14 plots would allow the development of hotels, shopping malls, offices, commercial and residential buildings.
To further expand the service sector, he said Yantai was planning about 20 projects relating to tourism, finance and commerce.
Yantai will participate in the Shandong trade fair in Hongkong next month, in which the city will try to tap foreign capital for developments in energy, transport, industry and about 100 property and other service sector projects.
Some 15 property development enterprises have been established in Yantai, participating in 123 projects worth nearly US$1.1 billion.
Mr Zhang also said Yantai was planning to invest 1.5 billion yuan (about HK$2.01 billion) in a massive project to direct water from the Yellow River into the city for industrial purposes.
To further improve infrastructure, the city was building railways and highways, upgrading port facilities and expanding electricity generation capacity, he said.
Projects in the pipeline included adding six deep-water berths for the Yantai port, establishing direct air links with Hongkong, South Korea and Taiwan, and installing two 200,000 kilowatt generators for the Longkou Power Plant.
Other projects being studied are a 1.2 million kilowatt nuclear power plant in Haiyang county, and the addition of four 600,000 kilowatt generators for the Mushan Power Plant.
Yantai is also seeking Beijing's approval for foreign banks in the city.
In 1992, the city approved 724 foreign-funded projects involving foreign capital of US$860 million. Over the next eight years, it hopes to absorb foreign capital of up to $8 billion.
To date, 330 foreign-funded enterprises have come into operation in Yantai, with 220 more enterprises to open business this year.
