Taizhou city deepens integration into Yangtze River Delta

A sweeping view of the banks of the Yangtze River in Jingjiang city. [Photo provided to etaizhou.gov.cn]

The prefecture-level city of Taizhou, located in East China's Jiangsu province, is continuing its integration into the Yangtze River Delta region – a process it began in recent years – so as to sustain its growth as a dynamic springboard for regional expansion.

Early in 2003, Taizhou's Jingjiang set up an industrial park with Wuxi city's Jiangyin, with both being county-level cities of Jiangsu province. The two cities, on either side of the Yangtze River, launched the first cross-river and trans-regional industrial cluster for the China-Jiangyin-Jingjiang industrial park 

After 20 years of development, the park now has four top 500 Chinese groups and three top 500 private Chinese businesses, with a total investment of 35 billion yuan ($5.03 billion).

What's more, leading industries have formed in the park: Sectors for shipbuilding, heavy steel structures, specialist metallurgy, mechanical equipment, auto parts and ports logistics.

In 2022, the annual GDP of the park grew by 5.6 percent over the previous year to reach 11.8 billion yuan, while revenue hit 75 billion yuan, up 9 percent and industrial output value above a designated size totaled 23.4 billion yuan, an increase of 11.9 percent.

According to a manager at Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Co Ltd, based in the Jiangyin-Jingjiang industrial park, during its development, the company has not only gained access to new resources, new platforms and new space for development, but also improved its industrial status and potential for growth.

A section of the Changzhou-Taixing Yangtze River Bridge is moved into position. [Photo/WeChat account: txfabu]

A group of infrastructure projects is expected to make Taizhou a main traffic hub in the area and speed up its integration into the Yangtze River Delta region. These include the Changzhou-Taixing Bridge – linking Taixing and Changzhou cities facing each other across the Yangtze. Then there is the Jiangyin-Jingjiang Yangtze River Tunnel, the Zhangjiagang-Jingjiang-Rugao Bridge and a high-speed railway linking Shanghai, Chongqing and Chengdu.

On August 25, 2020, a high-tech zone in Changzhou signed two agreements with Taizhou's Taixing to launch a pilot area for cooperation.

Taizhou has been sparing no effort to create industry supply chain clusters in recent years. Its bio-pharmaceuticals and marine engineering shipbuilding industries were included in a list of national advanced manufacturing industry clusters, accounting for one fifth of Jiangsu's total.

Last year, the total output value of its businesses above a designated size – those with annual revenue of 20 million yuan or more – in the health industry exceeded 170 billion yuan. Of that, the pharma sector accounted for 5 percent of the country's total and one quarter of Jiangsu's total. It has been a leader in the province in the health field for 19 consecutive years.

Taizhou's total output value of enterprises above a designated size in its marine engineering equipment and high-tech shipping industry clusters reached 57.25 billion yuan in 2022. The city is the largest private shipbuilding center in China.