The Zhangjiagang Free Trade Zone in Zhangjiagang's Jingang town, as a bonded port area in China along the Yangtze River, has witnessed an industrial boom this year. In the first half of the year, the zone attracted industrial investments of over 6 billion yuan ($973.3 million) and has generated sales revenue of more than 66 billion yuan ($1 billion), a year-on-year increase of 5.4 percent and 14.9 percent, respectively. Eight new projects were signed up, with a total investment of 5 billion yuan ($81.09 million).

The Zhangjiagang Free Trade Zone has become a hot spot for industrial investment thanks to its favorable geographic location, preferential policies and excellent services.

In the first half of the year, sales volume in the optical film base reached 2.21 billion yuan, up 100.7 percent, and sales volume of organic silicon topped 3 billion yuan.

Zhangjiagang Free Trade Zone. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The shale gas base, with an investment of 4 billion yuan, has completed the first stage of construction and is expected to launch trial productions this year. It will produce 660,000 tons of propylene products, which can save 2,000 yuan per ton in costs compared with imported products. Propylene is a basic chemical material, from which many downstream products are derived. The zone has been focusing on the shale gas base to create and develop a propylene industrial chain.

The zone also encourages establishing emerging industrial projects as well as high-tech projects. Currently, the zone has 21 county-level projects, eight city-level projects and three provincial projects. In the last six months, the zone's investment in emerging industries increased by 5.6 percent, and the emerging industries' output value accounted for 44.94 percent of total industrial output value.

Many large companies, such as Jiangsu Swellxin Bio-Pharm. Pty. Ltd., MultiDimension Technology Co and Jiangsu Guotai Super Power New Materials, are committed to developing industrial chains. Swellxin Bio-Pharm, for example, is the third largest bio-pharmaceutical company in the country specializing in anti-malarial products. It is planning for a new 3.33-hectare bio-pharmaceutical plant, with an investment of 70 million yuan ($11.35 million).