LINGANG, located in the most southern tip of Shanghai in Nanhui District, will be built into a new coastal town with about 800,000 residents and boasting an international shipping center by 2020.

Strategically built near Pudong International Airport and Yangshan Deep-Water Port, the 311.6-square-kilometer area, whose construction started five years ago, is considered the key to implement the national development strategy.

It will be developed into an international shipping center, a logistics hub and an industrial base which will include automobiles, aviation, heavy equipment and photoelectric manufacturing. The new town will include financial, business, education, travel, leisure and residential sectors.

"I think the 21st century belongs to Lingang New City," said Bao Tieming, deputy director of the Shanghai Lingang New City Administrative Committee and board director of the Shanghai Gangcheng Development Co. "It is another large-scale industrial development following the boom of the Pudong New Area."

He is confident that "Lingang, together with the 2010 World Expo and the Pudong New Area development, will exert a far-reaching effect on Shanghai's evolution in the next 20 to 50 years, even longer."

The new town is divided into five parts: the main town, a heavy industrial park, a logistics zone, a main industrial area and a mixed-use area. Free trade zones and export processing areas have also been set up.

Since 2003, domestic and international giants such as Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp, Shanghai Electric (Group), Germany's Siemens, COSCO, China Shipping, Maersk and Sulzer Metco have signed agreements worth more than 10 billion yuan (US$1.28 billion).

(Shanghai Daily, Nov 19, 2008)