A signing ceremony for Shenghong Group's new energy project is held in Zhangjiagang, Suzhou, Jiangsu province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

A signing ceremony for Shenghong Group's 30.6-billion-yuan ($4.5-billion) new energy project was held in Zhangjiagang, a county-level city in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province, on Jan 31.

The project involves the construction of a 60 gigawatt-hour battery factory and a new energy battery research institute. Located in the Zhangjiagang Economic and Technological Development Zone, the factory is expected to generate over 56 billion yuan in annual revenue after starting operation. The first phase of the project is expected to be completed in three years.

Han Wei, Party secretary of Zhangjiagang, said at the ceremony that the city government will build a first-class business environment and provide comprehensive and efficient services to help accelerate construction of the project.

Shenghong Group, established in 1992, is an international high-tech company specializing in the petrochemical, new energy, new materials, and textiles industries. It is ranked 241st on the Fortune Global 500 companies list.

Zhangjiagang will focus on attracting investment in 2023. It will introduce a series of stimulative policies to speed up the construction of 222 major projects that represent an investment of 40 billion yuan.

On Jan 28, the first day after the Spring Festival holiday, the city held a meeting to urge efforts to attract overseas investors. On Jan 29, a meeting aimed at accelerating the construction of 100 projects that will be started or finished in Zhangjiagang in the first quarter was also held.