The aerial view of the Zhangjiagang Bonded Zone. [Photo/zjgonline.com.cn]
The Zhangjiagang Bonded Zone, which was set up in October 1992, is the first of its kind in East China's Jiangsu province.
Previously a desolate zone that was filled with reeds, the 4.1-square-kilometer area is now China's largest inland port and Jiangsu's largest foreign trade port.
After receiving approval from the State Council to establish the bonded zone, Zhangjiagang built a wharf that can accommodate 10,000-metric-ton ships within five months. The construction of essential infrastructure, including roads, communications, water and power supplies, took just six months. The bonded zone started operating at the end of 1993.
China Oil and Foodstuffs Corporation (COFCO) was the first central government-owned enterprise to be set up in the zone. The decision to set up the enterprise in the zone, said Fu Zhongshui, the deputy general manager of COFCO Oils & Oilseeds, was based on the fact that the zone had a good transportation network and comprehensive government services.
Back then, building a factory required approval from dozens of government departments, and Zhangjiagang officials went the extra mile to ensure the construction of COCFO's new factory could begin as soon as possible, said Fu.
To date, COFCO has invested over 5 billion yuan ($717.36 million) in the Zhangjiagang Bonded Zone, and its Zhangjiagang branch has become Asia's largest oil production industrial park.
More than 30 Fortune Global 500 companies, including Dow and Honeywell, have also established a presence in the zone. US chemical company Dow has been launching a new project every 18 months in Zhangjiagang since it first came to the city in 1996 and invested over $2.5 billion so far, according to Zhong Ruilin, general manager of Dow's Zhangjiagang production base.
Zhangjiagang is one of the largest investment destinations of Dow in Asia, said Zhong.
As more and more companies gather in the zone, several industrial clusters have been formed. Traditional industries such as chemicals, textile, cooking oil, and valuable timber, and emerging industries like imported consumer goods are experiencing robust growth in the bonded zone.
The Jiangsu Yangtze River International Chemical Park in the zone, for example, is home to several leading industrial clusters of new materials, including organic silicon and high-performance resins. More than 60 percent of companies in the park are from overseas and 17 of them are on the Fortune Global 500 list.
The gross regional product of the Zhangjiagang Bonded Zone soared from 770 million yuan in 1998 to 85 billion yuan in 2021. The zone is also China's largest importer of liquid chemicals, wool, and valuable timber, and Jiangsu's largest importer of cars, wine, frozen meat and cotton.