Written by Li Yizhi / Translated by Xu Zhiliang

Nanning Liujing Industrial Park：Initiatively Transform to Achieve High-quality Development

Written by Li Yizhi / Translated by Xu Zhiliang

Liujing Town, Hengxian County, 50 kilometers away from east of Nanning’s urban district, is located in the heartland of Guangxi and an transportation network reaching out in all directions: Quanzhou-Nanning Expressway, Guangzhou-Kunming Expressway and Liujing-Qinzhou Expressway are interconnected here; both Hunan-Guangxi Railway and Litang-Qinzhou Railway pass by; Port of Nanning (Liujing Harbor District) next to Yujiang River Channel possesses ten 3,000-ton berths; Liujing is just 80 kilometers away from Nanning Wuxu International Airport. Based on such convenient regional advantages, Liujing Industrial Park (hereinafter referred to as LIP) is endowed with exceptional development opportunities.

In 2016, it is against the backdrop that China’s labor costs increase and economic growth rate slows down. As for Chinese manufacturing enterprises under such fierce competition, transformation and upgrading has unsurprisingly become a hot topic that people are concerned about. LIP as a key industrial park in Beibu Gulf Economic Zone is also faced with such a challenge.

Tang Xiaoruo, Director of the Management Committee of LIP, said that remarkable achievements have been made in this industrial park over the past decades. To date, there are 133 enterprises having access to LIP, with the total output value of 75.94 billion yuan during the 12thFive-Year Plan period; there are fi ve pillar industries introduced, including power and chemical engineering, mechanized equipment manufacturing, building materials, pulping and papermaking, as well as agriculture and forestry processing, with the total output value over designated size of about two thirds of that of Hengxian County. According to Deputy Director of LIP Deng Shanyan, under the new situation, there are two work priorities regarding the future development of LIP: one is how LIP and its relevant enterprises promote transformation and upgradation so as to weaken the negative effects caused by the current situation; the other is how to promote the quality to a higher level and indentify development orientation while laying a solid foundation. For one thing, we should maintain the existing industrial system while transforming and upgrading fi ve pillar industries; for another, we should forge a new industrial system while stabilizing the development of existing industries, the Deputy Director said.

Transformation target: High-end manufacturing and modern service

Currently, LIP is committed to completing industrial transformation and upgrading, as well as the optimization of industrial structure. Deng revealed that papermaking enterprises in LIP has begun to conduct their own transformation since 2015, which focuses on bringing in paper production technology with special use value and relatively high value added. On the other hand, modern service industry has been introduced to this industrial park, which is a major part of LIP’s transformation and upgrading under the new economic situation. To some extent, transformation and upgrading of papermaking industry reflects the overall transforming trend of this industrial park. “The biggest advantage of LIP lies in its convenient transportation,” said Director Tang Xiaoruo. In this case, LIP should make the most of its existing freight distribution center and regional superiorities of Liujing Harbor District to focus on the introduction of supporting industries such as E-commerce, logistics and storage, work hard to raise the service level, and create both modern comprehensive logistics park and E-commerce demonstration base.

Create a green industrial park through energy conservation and emission reduction

The Director Tang stated that there will be several major introduced industrial products such as advanced equipment manufacturing, electronic industry and new energy resources during the 13thFive-Year Plan period, while energy conservation and emission reduction is the development focus of such new industries.

Take the utilization of new energy resources for example. Having investigated and planned for a couple of years, LIP’s wind power generation assembly was put into use on Xiayi Mountain at the end of 2015, and this move will give full play to the development and utilization of local wind resources, and speed up the development of clean energy industry. In addition, 30-megawatt photovoltaic power generation project is also in construction at a rapid speed.

Of course, the development of new energy resource industrypromotes the transformation and upgrading of traditional high energy-consuming enterprises as well. Nanning Power Station begins to advance the technology upgrading in combination with the characteristics of thermal power to collect redundant thermal energy to support the enterprises in this park, and thus to realize the cogeneration of thermal power, which better avoids the waste of thermal energy, relatively reduces the energy consumption, as well as further reveals the future possibility. At present, LIP is planning to achieve the direct electric energy supply to enterprises in this industrial park.

Enterprises’ leading role in transformation

To some extent, LIP’s transformation and upgrading can be regarded as an epitome of the future development of China’s industry. The development of future industry will bring benefits to a wider range of social groups and our living environment in the years to come. However, both challenges and opportunities come together in this new era.

In view of the scope and depth of this industrial transformation and upgrading, Deputy Director Tang suggested that the government need to set up favorable platforms for the transformation and upgrading of numerous enterprises in LIP. At the same time, the enterprises should play a full role in the market economy, and make more progress.

He noted that most of the enterprises are very familiar with the significance of actively adapting to change, which is reflected by the current fruitful achievements made by them in the transformation and upgrading of LIP.

If both the government and LIP aim for the building of development platforms, there are four aspects to be highlighted: first, provide a convenient and favorable investment environment for the enterprises, and simplify the service process; second, provide diversifi ed investment and financing channels for the enterprises, especially small- and medium-sized enterprises; third, offer policy support to major industries so as to lead the development orientation of industrial system; fourth, and last, continue improving the service capability of their own and cultivate good service awareness.

Besides, LIP will foster a better environment for the access of enterprises and talents recruitment by means of the joint development of industries and city: increase the input of urban construction; propel the construction of supporting service facilities, etc. “Based on the 13thFive-Year Plan, LIP will expand its development advantages to forge ahead in accordance with the development concepts — innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing,” said Director Tang.