New pattern of opening up in the interpretation of the spirit of City Eleventh Party Congress

--"A bridge and two islands"' opens the south gate of Dandong

[Core reading] Construction of new Yalu River Highway Bridge and cooperative development of Gold Flat and Granville Island are a precious opportunity for Dandong’s opening up. So the city aims to seize the opportunity, and strive to spend five years or so to forge Dandong into the "bridgehead" facing the Korean peninsula and a major logistics channel linking Northeast Asia.

- Excerpt from the City’s Eleventh Party Congress report

The ancient Greek physicist Archimedes said: "Give me a fulcrum and I can move the entire planet."

Today's Dandong also has a "fulcrum" – with "a bridge, two islands and two ports" as the core, it will build the "bridgehead" opening to the Korean Peninsula and major logistics channel linking Northeast Asia with high spirit and big budget. Dandong is destined to leverage a new pattern of opening.

In October 2009, during Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to DPRK, construction of new Yalu River Highway Bridge was approved. In the first half of 2010, the number of domestic and foreign trade missions that Dandong received is equivalent to the total sum over the past two years. That year, Dandong was rated the "best city for investment by Zhejiang merchants" with a considerable influence in China and even the world.

In early June this year, China and the DPRK reached a consensus on cooperative development of Gold Flat and Granville Island Economic Zone on the Yalu River.

The development and opening of "a bridge and two islands" marks the "south gate" of Dandong is officially opened.

Comparing with brother cities, Dandong lacks of internal economic motivation, the industry and economy lack of backbone and chain; urban construction lacks of personality and subject; trade and logistics lack of high-level central business district, regional promoting capacity and high-end format; and private economy lacks of giant enterprise and leader.

However, Dandong is aiming at breaking through the "dead end" situation . Investors coming like waves find with surprise that, Dandong’s "region-wide opening" has everything ready: 192.86 square kilometers of land along the coast has been included into the key development area of Liaoning Coastal Economic Zone, 34.92 square kilometers in Dagushan Economic Area has been included into the key support area.

In addition,in the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period, investment in fixed assets is nearly 200 billion yuan. Dandong Port’s throughput exceeds 50 million tons, marching towards a 100-million-ton big port. Construction of Haiyanghong Port has started, too.

Besides, two railways and four highways are further completing the transport network.

North Korea is the largest trading partner of Dandong. Import and export toward DPRK in Dandong port alone accounts for more than 60 percent of China’s total trade volume towards DPRK. In the next five years, growth rate of trade between Dandong and DPRK will be much higher than the average growth of the city's foreign trade.

Currently, Dandong, with a total of 9 ports, is the Chinese border city with widest range of ports. The storage, trade, tourism, bonded, export processing and all kinds of services to be formed after bridge construction and development of the two islands will cover Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces, Inner Mongolia and eastern Hebei domestically, and radiate to the Korean Peninsula, Japan and other neighboring countries and regions abroad.

When those goals achieved, Dandong will become the premier international logistics hub and high-end logistics and industrial base in Northeast China.

After the opening of "Two islands", Dandong’s mineral development, aquatic product processing, garment processing and Korean software outsourcing, animation and traditional Chinese medicine industries will complement each other, and cooperation space will be comprehensive, wide-ranging and multi-leveled.

Tourism gathers popularity and drives opening. Since China opened a tourist train to the DPRK in April 2010, the number of visitors from developed provinces to DPRK via Dandong has surged. The opening of "two islands" will integrate Dandong’s landscape tours, spa tours, beach vacation tours, golf leisure tours, travelling to DPRK, and border stylish tour, and make it truly become a leisure capital aspired by the world and the visitors’ preferred tourist destination city.

Dandong shoulders the task as the "major channel" linking eastern region in Northeast China and even Northeast Asia with the world. In recent years, the city has been actively merged into Dalian Core Circle westwards, and gradually established A highly complementary industrial chain.

In September 2010, Dalian and Dandong signed a financial cooperation memorandum. In less than six months, a number of financial institutions such as Bank of Dalian and Jinzhou Bank have settled in Dandong, ending the city’s "bank shortage" for ten years;

In the next five years, Dandong’s focus on opening up will be transferred to introducing more high-quality talents.

The city will mainly develop modern agriculture, advanced manufacturing industry, high-tech industry, service outsourcing industry, modern commercial service industry, innovation and creation industry, and environment-friendly industry.

Port and coastal front line is the fieriest battlefield and the most cutting-edge position for the economy of Dandong. In the next five years, the city will configure advantageous resources in the great opening, and enable the export processing zone and port industrial park to become industrial clustering and social wealth creation area, as well as the "motor" for open economy.

Dandong will make full use of its ports and coastal resources, shift the industrial center to the coast, and develop the sea and port industries to adjust the overall industrial structure.

Dagushan Economic Zone will rapidly form Dandong’s special steel and downstream products, heavy chemical industry base; Dadong Port surrounding sea area will develop marine engineering, shipbuilding, grain deep processing and other industries. At the same time, other industries including logistics and warehousing will be put more focus, too.

Over the last three years, Dandong’s enterprises have accelerated the pace of overseas mergers and acquisitions year after year.

In 2008, Shuguang Group purchased a long-standing research and development center in Detroit with $2.98 million in the first phase, and another $7 million in the following year.

In 2009, Dandong Sikai Electronics Development Co acquired a Japanese company with $1.47 million and got its advanced manufacturing technology of super-capacitor.

In 2010, Liaoning Tianci Investment Development (Group) Co acquired a Swiss watch manufacturer with $953,300, thus exported Dandong watches into the "Clock Kingdom."

By the first half of 2011, Dandong’s overseas investment projects increased to 40, with a total investment of $110 million.

30 years ago, Dandong had led the new trend of reform and opening up in China to build a star city with courage and wisdom. Today, the "region-wide opening" has become a new road sign promoting Dandong to catch up and surpass.