 |
China's Youngest SEZ Stresses Marine Development
Hainan Province, also China's youngest and largest special economic zone (SEZ), is determined to become a marine economic giant in the country by vigorously exploiting the maritime resources in the years to come.
Hainan, a remote island in South China Sea, lagged far behind the country economically in the past. But it has had fast economic progress and gradually caught up with the economic development pace of the whole country since it became a province in April 1988, especially since it was declared as the country's 5th SEZ five years ago.
By 1999, the province's gross domestic product (GDP) was 47.1 billion yuan (US$5.7 billion), four times the 1987 figure. The annual GDP growth rate in the past 12 years was 11.9 percent, 2.7 percentage points higher than the national average.
It has also had noticeable increases in per capita GDP, local revenue. And its poverty-stricken population has fallen from 2.02 million to 120,000 over the past decade.
In the past 12 years, US$9.488 billion of overseas capital has been absorbed into Hainan. During the period, fixed asset investments totaled 155.097 billion yuan, 18.4 times the aggregate fixed asset investment in 37 years before Hainan became a province.
In 1999 alone, the province did US$1.219 billion worth of import and export, more than four times the 1987 figure.
China now has five SEZs: Shenzhen, Xiamen, Zhuhai, Shantou and Hainan.
In This Section
|