Characteristic Towns Boosting Ningbo s Economy

Early in 2015, Li Qiang, governor of Zhejiang province, highlighted characteristic towns as a key word in his Report on the Work of the Government. In the following 3 years, Zhejiang planned to construct about 100 such towns. A characteristic town provides an independent forum for development with specific industrial positioning, cultural background, tourism and some community functions. Currently, Ningbo has 11 towns listed in the Provincial Characteristic Towns Construction (Nurture) Plan. Next, Ningbo will continue to foster a batch of characteristic towns at the municipal level to advance the industrial transformation and upgrading for the construction of a new city.

On Jan.26th, 2016, another list of the provincial construction plan was released, including Ninghai Smart Car Town and Yuyao Mold developer's Town in it. Moreover, the Modern Electric Car Town of Yinzhou was listed in the nurture plan. Together with the earlier nominee, Jiangbei Engine Town, they once again brought Made in Ningbo into limelight. But manufacturing in these characteristic towns serves only as a strong engine for the development of tourism, culture, ecology and life in Ningbo.

Industry clusters brought characteristic towns into being

What would it be like, if electric cars become the major transport that has navigation system and can be borrowed, parked and returned at any time, and if their production becomes an economic engine of a specific area? The answer lies in the coastal area of southern Ningbo where a Smart Car Town was expediting its construction for an innovative and intelligent development base, a paradise for life and an ecological green land.

The light and nimble Zhidou electric car formed the foundation and core for the town. Taking full advantage, we only spent three months introducing Zhidou Electric Car Project held by the new energy automobile giant, Jili, to the town, and thus initiated the construction of a smart car town, said Xu Yun, secretary of Ninghai Economic Development Zone. The advantages he referred to were the solid industrial base of automobile parts and mold production along with the highly-agglomerated advanced R&D enterprises for new energy.

It's reported that Jili&Xindayang Company, whose major business is to develop, produce and sell electric minicars and run the service platform, will position in the town its headquarters of management and sales, its R&D center, its electric car rental company and its production base with an annual output of 0.3 million cars. The introduction of Zhidou not only meant heft profits for local mold enterprises and automobile parts suppliers, but also spurred industrial clusters of new energy automobile. Thus the overall strength of the town was further enhanced.

So is the situation in the Mold Developer's Town that aspires to expedite the transformation and upgrading of traditional manufacturing and forge an international mold production center and a first-rate Mold Innovation Park in the Yangtze River delta region. The town plans to introduce advanced equipment for breakthroughs in processing technologies, high-end mold manufacturers and complementary equipment enterprises. To achieve these goals, strong industrial clusters are indispensable. Yuyao is among the largest for clusters of mold enterprises with the glorious titles, Plastic Town and Kingdom of Molds . Its output of molds ranks first in Zhejiang and of plastic molds it ranks first nationwide. The solid industrial base has an obvious impact on the industrial clusters of 4500 local mold enterprises, 1600 enterprises in Cixi and 800 in Shangyu.

Based on manufacturing, the town expects more highlights

Certainly the Smart Car Town featured not just the smart cars, nor did the Mold developer's Town focus only on mold production.

With government's encouragement of widespread entrepreneurship and innovation, the Mold developer's Town plans to promote the Internet Plus business pattern, accelerate the construction of open space for mass innovation and improve services for entrepreneurs and innovators to spur their congregation. The Engine Town is also committed to develop research and design base, headquarters, product exhibition centers, etc. Besides, the Modern Electric Car Town, while focusing on developing new energy public transport industry, expects to further improve its infrastructure and service platform. And the Smart Car Town is the research, development and production base of national new energy automobile and will be a model base for new energy automobile exhibition.

Our smart towns consist of multiple elements like culture, tourism, business and entertainment besides car manufacturing. It will be a smart park for special experiences, so to speak, said Xu Yun, in the near future, every building and plant will have its own QR code which visitors need only to scan for detailed information. There will also be a large-scale electric car check station and an electric car racing circuit. There may even be unmanned cars running in the town

LINK:	http://en.nbwh.gov.cn/art/2016/3/29/art_1325_81463.html...
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