6 nantongspecial TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2011 CHINA DAILY Nantong — a national model in so many ways

By Ding Congrong to become an international, valued at 132 billion yuan, or vessels of 100,000 tons and up metropolitan area, and its eco- 25th in China. — are operational. Jiangsu province’s recent nomic growth has put it among Nantong is also a national In addition, Nantong Airport, program to develop its coastal the top coastal Chinese cities. model in the areas of culture, which also serves the Shanghai areas, combined with China’s The local government has sanitary conditions, social area, provides service to Bei- Yangtze River Delta strategy, reported a GDP of 341.8 billion security, and tourism, and in jing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and has benefited a number of plac- yuan ($54.2 billion) for 2010, 2007, was already one of the other domestic air routes. An es, not least of them the city of putting it in 26th place among nation’s top 10 cities in attract- expansion project is underway Nantong. Chinese cities. ing foreign investment. on the airport. Upon comple- That city is now on its way Its imports and exports were In recent years, thanks to tion, it is expected to serve big new transportation facilities, airplanes like the Boeing 740. such as the Nantong-Suzhou The city also has 13,200 Bridge across the Yangtze, and square kilometers of coastal Nantong Port, the city has even land, plenty of water and elec- more advantages for investors tric power supplies, and abun- and for growth. dant human resources. It sits at the very heart of the The city government has said vital Yangtze River Delta eco- that it is welcoming investors nomic zone and is a mere 90 with some attractive policies. kilometers from Shanghai. In fact, over the past several Its port on the Yangtze is not years, the Chinese Social Sci- only a major regional ship- ences Academy has ranked the ping center with links to other city first in public services pro- coastal cities and the outside vided by a local government. world, but also to 11 inland Nantong’s competitive indus- provinces. tries, which are a priority in The Nantong-Suzhou investment, include ship build- Bridge, which opened in 2008, ing and marine engineering, Offshore petroleum platform developed by a Nantong company. put the city only an hour’s drive which rank high nationally. from Shanghai. Nantong’s electronic infor- also done well, and its wind ing and companies such as vices to encourage more indus- Meanwhile, work on the mation industry has grown power puts it among the top Ctrip, Baidu, Google, Tencent, tries to settle there. Shanghai-Nantong railway 20 percent annually, and had coastal cities in China. and Acxion have operations in line is about to begin and the revenues of 96.7 billion yuan Nantong also has four pro- Nantong. Nantong Bureau of Commerce harbors at Yangkou and Lusi last year. vincial-level demonstration The city has said it will con- and Nantong Information harbors — which can berth The new energy sector has zones for IT services outsourc- tinue to provide advanced ser- Office contributed to the story

A Yangtze River Delta city, Nantong is only 90 kilometers from Shanghai. This port city in the Yangtze River Delta is well on its way to becoming a modern international metropolis.