Restructuring, emerging industries drive economic development, Ding Congrong, Liu Lu and Shen Xuemei report.

Nantong in East China's Jiangsu province has reached the goals it set for the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) through industrial restructuring and innovation-driven growth in the context of the economic new normal, the city government said.

"The city's economic development features accelerated restructuring of pillar industries and robust growth of emerging industries," said Yang Yang, director of Nantong’s Economy and Information Technology Commission.

Restructuring

The value of the city's six pillar industries — textiles and garments, light industry and food, electronic information, chemical engineering and medicine, shipping and heavy equipment, and energy and energy equipment — increased by an average 14.2 percent annually over the past five years and surpassed more than 1.1 trillion yuan ($172 billion) last year, up 11.6 percent year-on-year, according to the city’s statistics bureau.

Moreover, the industries have accelerated their adoption of new sectors such as modern textiles, green chemical engineering, intelligent equipment, precision machinery and ocean engineering, Yang said.

The value of the city's six emerging industries — ocean engineering, new energy, new materials, intelligent equipment, biopharmaceutical and environmental protection — increased by 28 percent annually on average over the past five years to reach 418 billion yuan, up 20 percent year-on-year.

Nantong's ocean engineering industry has experienced rapid growth over the years and its products occupy about one-third of the national market.

The output of specialized vessels in the city last year reached 9.1 million metric tons, up 38.6 percent year-on-year. The value of the city’s ocean engineering industry totaled 35.2 billion yuan last year, an increase of 39 percent from the previous year. Nine enterprises in Nantong finished orders for 17 vessels or marine equipment worth more than $1.7 billion.

Industrial restructuring and upgrading has greatly promoted the new industrialization of Nantong, Yang said, adding that the city pays special attention to the creation of bases for emerging industries.

Nantong has established two national-level bases for the industries of shipping, ocean engineering and textile, four provincial-level demonstration bases for new industrialization and 33 city-level bases over the past five years, he said.

Innovation

The city has also made great progress in promoting public innovation and entrepreneurship and improving local enterprises' strength in innovation during the 12th Five-Year Plan.

The output of the city's high-tech industry increased from 320 billion yuan in 2011 to 550 billion yuan last year, said Li Jiping, head of Nantong's Science and Technology Bureau. The number of high-tech enterprises has also increased from 237 in 2011 to 663, he said.

The city submitted applications for 125,000 patents during the 12th Five-Year Plan, of which 79,000 were accepted, statistics show.

One scientific achievement was granted a national gold award for patents and another 45 won scientific progress awards at provincial level or above.

Motivated by the government's favorable policies for technological innovation, more enterprises have established their own research institutes and increased investment to seize the opportunities generated by innovation-driven growth. The number of enterprises with city-level or above research institutes has increased from 478 in 2011 to 895.

Modern services

The sector of modern services has backed up the industrial upgrading in Nantong and become a new source of economic growth in the city, according to the local reform and development commission.

During the 12th Five-Year Plan, the added value of the service industry increased by 12.6 percent annually on average, higher than the GDP growth rate and that of the industry in Jiangsu province during the same period.

The local tax revenue on Nantong’s service industry reached 33.1 billion yuan last year, accounting for 69.1 percent of the total, 12 percentage points higher than at the end of the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10).

The city has invested more than 105 billion yuan in nearly 500 service industry projects over the past years, said Shi Songhua, an official from the Nantong Development and Reform Commission.

By the end of last year, the number of taxable enterprises in Nantong's service industry reached 40,647, an increase of 9,087 from five years ago, he said.

A number of emerging service enterprises, including Taojin Group and Linsen Logistics Group, highlighted Nantong’s rapid growth in the sector, he added.

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