Reform and opening-up pioneer affirms its place as central Northeast Asian hub

It was from here that China's first aircraft carrier, the CNS Liaoning, first set sail; here that the world's strongest ever extreme ultraviolet light beam was developed; here that an Intel non-volatile chip storage project with an accumulated investment of $8 billion is located. This is Dalian, a coastal city in Northeast China's Liaoning province.

As one of China's first batch of "open" coastal cities and one of the most prosperous in Northeast China, Dalian has made remarkable achievements during China's profound 40-year journey of reform and opening-up.

In 1978, at the beginning of the reform and opening-up, the total economic output of Dalian was only 4.21 billion yuan ($610.5 million), but this figure soared to 698.98 billion yuan in 2017.

According to Tan Zuojun, Party chief of Dalian, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council have attached great importance to the comprehensive revitalization of the northeastern region, and have issued a series of policies to support the comprehensive revitalization of the Northeast.

As an important node city involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, Dalian has huge potential for cooperation with countries participating in the initiative, said Tan.

According to its development plan, in 2035, Dalian will become a core city for science and technology, innovation and entrepreneurship, and venture capital in Northeast Asia, as well as an international center for shipping, logistics, finance and trade.

From development area to free trade zone

In 1984, Dalian was given the green light to establish China's first economic and technological development area. In October that year, construction began in a small fishing village called Maqiaozi, 30 kilometers to the northeast of downtown Dalian.

Dalian Jinpu New Area became one of the biggest success stories of reform and opening-up in Northeast China, and home to burgeoning internationalization. Currently, there are nearly 60,000 enterprises in Jinpu New Area, including more than 5,000 foreign-funded enterprises.

In 2017, the area achieved a regional GDP of 197.85 billion yuan, accounting for 28.3 percent of that of Dalian and 8.5 percent of Liaoning province.

The administration of the Dalian area of the China (Liaoning) Pilot Free Trade Zone was officially founded in 2017.

In 2018, it officially joined the World Free Zones Organization and became China's second pilot free trade zone to join the organization after Shanghai.

Li Pengyu, director of the administrative committee of Dalian Jinpu New Area, said the area will establish richer and closer economic and trade connections with the world.

"We'll take full advantage of the favorable policies as a State level new area and pilot free trade zone, add new energy to the revitalization and development and build a new pattern of opening-up to the outside world," he said.

The container terminal at Dalian Jinpu New Area. Dalian Port has opened more than 300 routes connecting 116 cities at home and abroad. Piao Feng / For China Daily

A magnet attracting foreign investment

Located at the southernmost tip of the Liaodong Peninsula, Dalian is a major connecting point between Northeast China and Japan, South Korea and the eastern tip of Russia.

Dalian has attracted 267 investment projects from 114 Fortune Global 500 companies.

The city has attracted major investments in the form of advanced equipment manufacturing projects, including Goodyear tires from the United States, Germany's Volkswagen automatic transmission and ThyssenKrupp.

In addition, Dalian has been named a demonstration city for software industry internationalization, as well as a national software export base, national informationization pilot city, e-commerce demonstration city and service outsourcing base city. This has helped it form a strong growth point to attract foreign investment.

Advanced equipment manufactured in Dalian

Dalian's equipment manufacturing sector is developing toward high-end, high-speed precision machine tools, while its intelligent manufacturing lines have successfully penetrated high-tech fields such as the aerospace, nuclear and military industries.

The city's shipbuilding industry has developed rapidly over the past 40 years, and so the first domestically produced aircraft carrier independently designed and built by China was manufactured by Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co, a subsidiary of China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation.

Dalian Huarui Heavy Industry Group Co Ltd developed the cable-driven system of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, the world's largest single-aperture radio telescope.

The domestically developed C919 airliner is a testament to the efforts of Dalian University of Technology, Dalian Starts Hi-tech Co Ltd, and Dalian C&L Technology Development Co Ltd. Its firewall insulation blanket was tailor-made by C&L, effectively protecting the aircraft's tail backup power system.

C&L was founded in 2005 as a foundry for foreign-invested companies.

Xia Jianjun, the company's general manager, said seeing the broad prospects of China's aviation industry, the company decided to transition to the high-end market to develop and produce quality aviation parts.

Northeast Asian innovation center

In recent years, Dalian has been vigorously implementing an innovation-driven development strategy, issuing policies, measures and more than 70 supporting rules to accelerate its transformation into a Northeast Asian center for science and technology, innovation and entrepreneurship, and venture capital.

Tan Zuojun said these measures will serve as a powerful driving force for innovation, adding new development momentum and leading high-quality economic development.

Dalian Coherent Light Source, which was jointly developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences's Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics and CAS's Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, emitted the world's strongest extreme ultraviolet light beam in 2017.

According to Liu Zhongmin, director of DICP, the successful development of the Dalian Coherent Light Source has spurred strong interest. Many top research and development teams at home and abroad have expressed their hope to carry out related research work relying on the light source.

To attract skilled workers and domestic and overseas talent, Dalian has issued five major policies and 22 supporting measures. In the first half of this year alone, Dalian attracted 18,960 professional and technical personnel, 145 high-level talented individuals and 4,434 highly-skilled personnel.

Important node city for Belt and Road Initiative

Since the Belt and Road Initiative was launched in 2013, Dalian has worked with relevant countries and regions to lay the foundations for major international logistics channels linking Europe and Asia.

To form a channel between Liaoning and Europe, the city opened a number of transit trains between China and Europe, which truly achieved a seamless connection between sea and rail transport, with an average annual increase of 150 percent in container volume.

At present, Dalian Port has opened more than 300 routes connecting 116 cities at home and abroad, which in some cases cut days or even close to a month from the transit time.

Dalian International Airport has opened 162 domestic and 48 international routes, opening the city to more than 30 other cities in 13 countries and regions, thus becoming a new Chinese air hub connecting Japan, South Korea and Russia.

At the same time, Dalian actively promotes cooperation with countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative. International conferences and fairs held in Dalian, such as the Summer Davos and China International Software and Information Service Fair, keep attracting more participants from various countries and regions.

In addition, the city is vigorously developing the Belt and Road market. Since 2013, Dalian enterprises have invested and contracted 54 projects in 17 related countries, with total investment of $950 million.