Correspondent Jing Zhongyan
(Singapore, 24th November 2020) Nanshan District, founded in January of 1990, lies in the southwestern part of Shenzhen, the first special economic zone in China. With Shenzhen Bay in the east and the Pearl River estuary in the west, it connects Hong Kong by a bridge over the sea. It covers a land area of 187.5 km2 and a sea area of 360 km2, with the resident population of 1,424,000.
A Door of Opening up: Nanshan District is of vital importance for the Belt and Road Initiative with its five national sea and land ports. Among them, Shenzhen Bay Port witnesses more than 100,000 inbound and outbound passengers each day. With the three major ports of Shekou, Chiwan and Mawan connecting Nanshan to the world, a traffic hinge of sea-land-air transportation network is to be formed in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. As the gateway to the sea of Shenzhen, Taiziwan Cruise home port was licensed as the first national experimental zone for the cruise tourism in South China.
A Pioneer of the Times: In 1979, Shekou in Nanshan District pioneered in the opening-up reform, forming Shekou Industrial Zone, the first of its type in China to open to the outside world. Over nearly 40 years, Nanshan has been keeping in line with the national strategy and the trend of the times in developing the national high-tech zone, Shenzhen-Hong Kong Cooperation Demonstration Zone for modern service industries, Qianhai Shekou Pilot Free Trade Zone and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
High-Quality Economic Development: In 2019, Nanshan achieved the gross domestic product (GDP) of 610.36 billion yuan, with an increase of 7.6%, ranking first in districts/counties of Guangdong Province and third in China for seven consecutive years. The aggregate economic output increased by more than 100 billion yuan for four consecutive years. In the first three quarters of the year, the local GDP reached 460.98 billion yuan, with an increase of 4%. Nanshan has now cultivated more than 177 listed enterprises, ranking second in all districts/counties of China. The total amount of national high-tech enterprises reaches 4008, and the R&D expenditure accounts for 5.72% of GDP. The PCT international patent application accounts for 1/8 of national total, every 10,000 persons holding 414 patents for invention.
Ecology of Seas and Mountains: With an appealing coastline of 43.7 kilometers, Nanshan boasts such great natural landscape as Shenzhen Bay, Qianhai Bay, Da’nanshan and Xiao’nanshan Mountain, Dashahe River, Xili Lake, Neilingding Island and so on. The beautiful “Ocean Star”, made up by Shenzhen Talent Park and the 6.6-kilometer-long west coastal leisure zone on the bank of Shenzhen Bay, is now taken as the new urban “Reception Hall”. With 161 parks in the district, the green coverage rate attains 53.03% and the excellent and good rate of atmospheric environment quality exceeds 90%.
Superior Services: Nanshan has set up a national E-government demonstration zone, establishing the country’s first “portable” integrated multi-channel government affairs service system. In addition, Shenzhen Bay Innovation Plaza has been built as a 35,000-square-meter “supermarket of government affairs service”. Backed up by the Nanshan Intellectual Property Protection Center with an area of 6,000 km2, Nanshan concentrates on forming a “one-stop” service platform to implement the most stringent policy of the intellectual property protection.
Facing the current historical opportunity to develop both the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Pilot Demonstration Zone, Nanshan district strives for an international innovative coastal central district. Guided by the dual driven strategy of “Technological Innovation + Headquarters Economy” and three detailed five-year-schemes to realize it, Nanshan attempts to establish itself as a modern international harbor district with innovation charming and residential comfort.
