Nansha, an emerging marine hub in the Greater Bay Area
Blue economy, backed by hi-tech and services industries, is a new economic growth engine in future for China.
The maritime economy in the country grew by 7.5 per cent annually on average in the past five years to reach 7.8 trillion yuan in 2017. Beijing expects the maritime industry to be worth 10 trillion yuan by 2020 and account for around 15 per cent of gross domestic product GDP by 2035.
Located at the center of the Greater Bay Area, the country’s biggest economic power, Nansha in Guangzhou, is definitely a key part to fulfil the aggressive economic targets.
With a sound industrial foundation, Nansha is also Guangdong’s gateway in participating in the construction of the Belt and Road (B&R) Initiative and national strategy to build a 21st century maritime Silk Road, by enhancing bilateral and multilateral maritime cooperation with other countries and fostering world-class marine industrial clusters in the Greater Bay Area (GBA).
Nansha will support the development of the marine industry in Guangzhou, aiming at bring the sector’s prospective gross product to 390 billion yuan by 2020.
Located in the northeast of Longxue Island of Nansha, the Longxue shipbuilding base is one of three major shipbuilding bases in China, covering an area of 437 hectares, excluding the 72-hectare inner basin, where the Pearl River joins the sea. Big names in the industry includes CSSC Guangzhou Longxue Shipbuilding Company (CSSC-GLS) and Guangzhou Shipyard International Company Limited (GSI), Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding and Guangdong Yuexin Ocean Engineering.
The shipbuilding companies in Nansha now is aiming at achieving a yearly shipbuilding capacity of large vessels up to 10 million deadweight tons (dwt) yearly. It targets at leading world-class marine engineering equipment industry, accounting to one tenth of the world market in future.
Nansha is the only deep-water port in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province. The port, which now has 16 deep-water container piers that can handle 150,000-ton vessels, has now opened international shipping routes to more than 200 cities and regions across the world.
Also, Nansha port is expected to become a sub-center of Guangzhou and a modern logistics center. It has built a series of special docks for grains, crude oil, vehicles and petrochemical products, forging a perfect platform to commercialize the marine industry there.
Backed by Guangzhou’s colleges and universities as significant education hub in South China, Nansha is aiming at playing leading role in innovation and R&D in blue economy.
On January 8, the Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory of Chinese Academy of Sciences was officially inaugurated in Nansha was formally launched in Nansha Chinese Academy of Sciences, which will be an important and world-class marine science and engineering research and development platform to promote the development of marine high-tech industry in the GBA.
When it comes to marine industry development, Nansha, where is located in the center of the GBA and adjacent to Hong Kong and Macau, has policy advantages of multiple national strategic superposition to play a leading role in the area for marine transportation, marine high-end equipment manufacturing, marine technology industry, according to Xie Ming, deputy director general of the Administrative Committee of Nansha Development Zone.
Growing key basic research labs to support local products and market applications are well-equipped and suited in Nansha for projects that are promoting cut-edge technology.
Three science and technology innovation platform at national level are Lithium-ion Battery Process Equipment Technology Basic Service Platform, China (Nansha).
Internet of Things Names Service Platform and National Supercomputer Center in Guangzhou (Nansha), is seeking breakthroughs in core and cutting-edge technologies in electric-vehicle battery, identification service for IOT and supercomputer.