Investment, trade, tourism boom in Dalian

A key port in Northeast China, Dalian Port handled more than 10 million containers in 2014. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Dalian Locomotive and Rolling Stock Co has sold products in South Asia. Dalian Heavy Machinery won a bid for 10 projects along the corridor and Linde Engineering Co exported sets of large air separation equipment to India.

"The first set has been installed in India and the fifth one will arrive shortly. All these sets are valued at more than $100 million, contributing to the city's expansion of foreign trade and earning foreign exchange," said Chen Chun, general manager of Linde.

Statistics showed that exports from Dalian to countries along the Belt and Road corridor increased sharply this year, including annual increases of 34.8 percent to Singapore, 176.5 percent to the United Arab Emirates and 96.5 percent to India.

The majority of the exports are electronics, software and information products, demand for which has helped transfer redundant production capacity and restructure and upgrade Dalian's industries.

Boosted by large projects

Dalian has ushered in new opportunities for its development. This has been boosted by large investment projects as the central government's strategy of rejuvenating Northeast China has steadily advanced. After Changxingdao was approved to build a world-class petrochemical industry hub and Jinpu New District was approved as a State-level economic area, development sped up significantly.

Dalian Mayor Xiao Shengfeng said the city started 157 projects, each demanding investment of more than 100 million yuan, during the first half of this year, while total investment reached 109.26 billion yuan.

Large projects also spurred foreign direct investment. Between January and June, Dalian approved the establishment of 116 new foreign companies with total contract value of $1.77 billion, of which $1.75 billion was foreign direct investment.

During the first half of this year, large projects accounted for the majority of FDI. During this period, 14 companies were invested in by foreigners, with more than $10 million each, with total value of $1.59 billion, accounting for 90.9 percent of the city's total FDI.

In July, Tang and Xiao inspected project implementation in Dalian. The two leaders paid attention to how the projects were being operated and if there was room for improvement to boost development in the future.

Construction on various projects is underway in the Changxingdao Economic and Technological Development Zone. Infrastructure facilities are being built in the comprehensive bonded zone.

The planned Hengli Petrochemical Industrial Park, one of the world's largest pure terephthalic acid manufacturing facilities, will boast an integrated refining project with production capacity of 20 million tons per year when complete.

In the first half of this year, Hengli Petrochemical's output hit 3.3 million tons, an increase of 43.5 percent year-on-year.