HUIZHOU, Guangdong: The Huizhou Daya Bay Economic and Technological Development Zone is beefing up efforts to seek further investment from global tycoons.

A State-level economic and technological development zone, the Daya Bay area is becoming increasingly renowned nationwide thanks to the establishment of the nation's largest joint-venture (JV) petrochemical project between China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) and Shell.

With an investment of US$4.35 billion, the project broke ground last November and is expected to yield 800,000 tons of ethylene and 2.3 million tons of petrochemicals yearly when completed in late 2005.

Riding on that success, the zone will hold the 2003 Huizhou Daya Bay Development Promotion Seminar on September 18 and 19, which will be used to highlight a large batch of tremendous projects for potential investors.

There are expectations for another 20-odd projects to be signed.

"The event aims primarily to pursue investment for projects related to the CNOOC-Shell petrochemical project, such as logistics, iron and steel, automobiles and information technology (IT) and we are pinning high hopes on possible co-operative ties with the world's top 500 enterprises," said Zhu Tingqing, director-general of the zone's administrative committee.

The official said the seminar fits well into the zone's plan of turning its petrochemical, logistics, iron and steel, automobile and IT sectors into pillar industries.

With the petrochemical JV project, Zhu said the zone is heating up for investors as there are huge spin-offs.

Construction of the CNOOC-Shell petrochemical project is well under way. More than 20 per cent of all related projects had been completed by late July, Zhu said.

And construction of two related projects is also right on track: A gas power plant involving an investment of 8.50 billion yuan (US$1.02 billion) and a crude oil storage project involving an investment of 3 billion yuan (US$361.45 million).

An oil refinery, which will entail an investment of 16 billion yuan (US$1.93 billion) and will be capable of an annual production of 12 million tons, will hopefully be approved soon, according to Zhu.

According to the director-general, the Daya Bay zone enjoys unique advantages for the development of huge projects, like its excellent port, an adequate supply of fresh water, abundant land and sparse population.

Even more, he added, the local authorities will pour in 110 billion yuan (US$13.25 billion) in infrastructure projects in the coming 10 years to create an even better investment climate.

(HK Edition 08/16/2003 page7)