The Baohe district of Hefei, Anhui province's capital, has become a major business area and investment destination. Photos provided to China Daily

Transport facilities, such as the Hefei International Container Terminal, have given Baohe greater strength as a logistics center for the region.

China's Anhui province has found itself in the admirable position of acting as a link between the country's eastern and central regions, as a part of two grand strategies to develop the Yangtze River Delta and areas upstream.

In fact, the province has had an economic development program of its own for at least a year - the Wanjiang City Belt program - which was approved by the State Council in January 2010 as part of the national strategies.

And one district of the provincial capital, Hefei, looks well positioned to become the province's economic center as part of the process.

The purpose of the Anhui program is to turn the area into a major destination for industries that want to move from the East Coast to areas farther inland, mostly for financial reasons.

It involves 10 cities along and near the Yangtze River and Baohe - Hefei's largest district, in both area and population - is expected to play a major role because of its developed economy and geographic advantages.

The district has about 820,000 people and covers a 340-square-kilometer area, 70 sq km of which is in the form of water - Chaohu Lake, Anhui's largest.

Last year, Baohe's gross domestic product (GDP) was 38.41 billion yuan, with an average annual increase of 22.9 percent from 2006.

Adding to its general strength are its completed or under-construction transportation facilities.

The district includes Hefei Luogang Airport - a national-level airport and the Hefei Southern Railway Station, which is still in the works and is expected to be the third-largest in eastern China, after Shanghai's and Nanjing's.

Also under construction is the Hefei International Container Terminal at Chaohu Lake, which is a major water transport hub in Anhui province.

The district government is trying to use its infrastructure construction to attract more investment from China and abroad, and, in the last 10 months, its fixed-asset investments reached 52.37 billion. This mostly went to the Binhu New District and other facilities.

The Binhu project has a planned area of 196 sq km and is being designed as the central business district of Hefei, with focus on modern services, such as finance, trade, tourism, logistics, education, and real estate.

The first phase began in November 2006 at a total cost of 50 billion yuan for building facilities of 18 sq km. The area now has 32 km of roads.

This will also be an ecologically friendly neighborhood for the approximately 360,000 people living in it, with 55 percent of the land covered by grass and trees.

The district government also has plans to develop other business areas along Wuhu Road and the Southern Second Ring Road, as well as near the railway station.

Modern services are not Baohe's only competitive industry, since it also covers automobiles and electric power.

It has such prominent domestic automakers as JAC and Ankai and more than 200 companies involved in or connected to the automobile industry.

In the first six months of 2011, this important investment site in Hefei pulled in 26.64 billion yuan in investment funds from the rest of the country and abroad, going well beyond the local government's expectations for the entire year.

(China Daily 12/09/2011 page56)