A special railway is now under construction in Xinxiang Industrial Zone.

Built in January 2003, Henan Xinxiang Industry Zone has 11 administrative villages and a planned area of 33 sq km. To date, 8 sq km have been constructed with nearly 3 billion of the 120 billion yuan projected investment. Of the investment so far, 2 billion yuan has been invested in industrial projects and nearly a billion in infrastructure.

As the latest and most quickly developed of the 27 provincial industry parks, 118 enterprises have settled here, including 12 with an investment of over one billion yuan.

Some of those enterprises include Bailu Chemical Fiber Co Ltd, Xinfei Special-purposed Vehicle Co, and Xinxiang Liby Co. Forty-eight others, each worth more than 10 million yuan, have also settled into the new park.

Surrounded by two provincial expressways and one national highway (with another under construction) the park is 8 km east of downtown Xinxiang and only 70 km from Zhengzhou, Henan's capital city. It is also only a 45-minute drive to the nearest airport. Metropolises such as Beijing, Tianjin, Wuhan, Xi'an and Jinan are all within six hours from the park.

The park will also boast an 8.2 km special railroad. The 60 million yuan project should be completed within the year.

Water, electricity, gas, heat, cable Internet, television, and postal services are available in the completed zone as well as a 28-km stretch of road. By the end of last year, the zone already boasted cumulative profits of 200 million yuan.

With over 3,000 mu (200 hectares) of projected land, the park will emphasize the scientific concept of development through strict supervision of investment and land use, and will facilitate standardized workshop construction. Three phases of standardized workshop projects, totaling an area of 500,000 sq m, will be completed by 2010. Fifty thousand sq m have already been built as part of the project's initial phase.

The park is Henan's first such industry zone to pass regional environment evaluation. It is certified with ISO 14001, an internationally accepted specification for environmental management systems. At the park, sewage treatment projects are being bided through the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model. Ecological shelter-forests have also been planted near its borders and roadsides. Riverside forestation projects are also flourishing.

While clusters of chemical fiber textiles, auto parts and machinery processing, fine chemical engineering, and storage and logistics begin to grow, the park consciously cooperates with local education institutions. It has built China's largest migrant worker training facility and vocational school, which provides 10,000 trained migrant workers and a further 10,000 skilled technicians to enterprises in the zone. The school is also expected to have 30,000 graduates per year, providing sufficient human resources for the park's administration and development.

Park officials are also aware of the importance of harmonious development, and say the park is a model for reconciling industrial growth with the interests of local residents. Nearby regions have contributed more than 8,000 migrant workers, who on average earn nearly one thousand yuan more per year than if they worked the land.

More than 2,000 landless peasants living in the area have been incorporated into the urban minimum allowance scheme, and 9.1 million yuan has been allocated for their development. In addition, 89 percent of the agricultural community in the park has joined the new rural cooperative medicare system.

By 2010, the entire park zone is expected to cover an area of 15 sq km, with 200 enterprises, 50,000 residents, and over 10 billion yuan in gross output value and one billion yuan in profits and tax.

The Jinbeishan Wenzhou Commercial Town in Changyuan County.

(China Daily 10/19/2007 page26)