72b yuan - the bill to transform sleepy Hengqin
Guangdong will spend 72.6 billion yuan (HK$82.3 billion) to transform sleepy Hengqin Island off Macau from a bleak outpost with a gross domestic product of just 128 million yuan last year into a key base for cross-delta co-operation.
A new town will be built on the 86 square kilometre island, with a theme park, multi-functional power station and business district.
Guangdong party boss Wang Yang and governor Huang Huahua officiated at a ceremony on Wednesday to launch Hengqin's Communist Party office. Hengqin now has sub-provincial administrative status, joining the ranks of Pudong New Area in Shanghai and Binhai New Area in Tianjin .
More details of key projects in Hengqin were unveiled by officials as they launched the party office.
A 12 billion yuan power station will be built by China Power Investment on a 360,000 square metre site on the island's northwest. To be ready in 2012, it will provide electricity, heating, gas and drinking water.
A 10 billion yuan theme park will be built by Guangzhou-based Chimelong Group, which runs a safari park in Panyu district. The first phase of the 400,000 square metre park could be ready by early 2012.
The park may feature pandas, as Guangdong authorities listed 'experience in raising and exhibiting giant pandas and koalas' among prerequisites for bidding when they tendered the right to build the park last year.
Part of a 38 billion yuan business district, known as Shizimen (Cross Gate), will be built on a 3.5 square kilometre site in the north of Hengqin. This will feature convention and exhibition centres, office towers and five-star hotels.
In another project, the University of Macau will be moved to Hengqin and a cross-harbour tunnel will link the university's future campus with Macau's Cotai Strip.
The island, part of the Zhuhai Special Economic Zone, will also pilot co-operation projects with Macau in customs, financial and revenue systems, and land management.
Macau's policymakers and developers have long been eyeing Hengqin to ease the pressure of population growth. The former Portuguese enclave has arguably the world's highest population density, with 541,200 residents sharing just 29 square kilometres of land. Just a few hundred metres from Cotai, Hengqin is three times the size of Macau, but has fewer than 7,000 residents.
Big blueprint
Developments on Hengqin will include a new town, theme park and business zone
A road network will cover: 116km
