20th Anniversary of Shantou SEZ Celebrated

20th Anniversary of Shantou SEZ Celebrated

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A grand gathering was held Monday to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Shantou Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in this city in south China's Guangdong Province.

A series of activities is scheduled to be held in the coming days, including a food festival, an international food expo and a trade fair of Chinese products.

Since 1980, China has set up five SEZs -- the Shenzhen, Shantou and Zhuhai SEZs in Guangdong Province, and the Xiamen SEZ in Fujian Province, as well as China's biggest SEZ on Hainan Island.

The SEZs, guided by the principle of developing export-oriented economy with the stress on developing industry and integrating industry with trade have attracted foreign funds, introduced advanced technologies and scientific management expertise, increased exports, expanded international economic and technological cooperation and exchanges and gradually set up an economic mechanism suited to the development of the export- oriented economy.

The Shantou SEZ, set up in November 1981, is situated on a piece of sandy land in the eastern suburbs of Shantou City, and originally covered an area of 1.6 sq km.

The SEZ expanded its area to 52.6 sq km in November 1984, and again enlarged it to cover the whole city of Shantou in 1991, with a total area of 234 sq km.

Shantou has grown into a modern city through intensive construction and development efforts in the past two decades. The annual growth rate of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has reached 15.8 percent over the past 20 years, local official statistics show.

The city's GDP amounted to 47.7 billion yuan (over 5.7 billion U.S. dollars) last year, with the per capita GDP in the SEZ standing at over 20,000 yuan (about 2,409 U.S dollars). The SEZ's export value hit 2.6 billion U.S. dollars in 1999.