The tides of the Yangtze and the sea surge forward, painting a new chapter this autumn. As the 15th Five-Year Plan begins and the year enters a critical phase of building momentum, project construction has become Nantong's strongest engine for seizing development opportunities.
Today (October 24), the city held an observation event as part of its investment promotion and project construction advancement meeting. City leaders Wu Xinming, Zhang Tong, Wang Xiaobin, Zhao Hongbo, and others led heads of various counties (cities, districts), parks, and municipal departments to visit project sites in Hai'an, Rugao, Chongchuan, Tongzhou, and the Nantong Development Zone, inspecting construction progress, discussing industrial strategies, and comparing results on-site, witnessing the vibrant momentum of new quality productive forces accelerating across new industrial spaces.
Since the start of this year, the city's economy has remained generally stable, with GDP growing 5.2% in the first three quarters, above-scale industrial value added increasing 7.8% year-on-year, and output from six major key industrial clusters rising 11.4%. Following the observation route, it is clear that integrated circuits and high-end equipment are gathering strength, modern health care and cultural tourism districts are unveiling new looks, and R&D platforms and industrial clusters are rapidly taking shape. One landed project after another is joining together like beads on a string, vividly outlining Nantong's determined march toward industrial upgrading.
Building a Solid Backbone for Advanced Manufacturing with a "Chip" Foundation
The TF-AMD (Tongfu Chaowei) advanced testing base project, with a total investment of 5 billion yuan, officially began production this morning (October 24). Entering the clean workshop, sets of advanced testing equipment operate at high speed, with automatic loading and unloading equipment achieving fully unmanned operations.
According to Guo Hongwei, engineering director of Tongfu Chaowei (Nantong) Microelectronics Co., Ltd., the project is located in the Shibei Integrated Circuit Phase II Industrial Park and relies on 25,000 square meters of industrial space. After production begins, it will achieve an annual testing capacity of 5 million high-end computing chips. The project is invested and built by Suzhou Tongfu Chaowei Semiconductor Co., Ltd., focusing on full-process packaging and testing of high-end processors such as CPUs, GPUs, APUs, and AI accelerator chips, with key emphasis on cutting-edge processes including FCBGA advanced packaging and multi-chip integration.
Integrated circuits are a strategic, foundational, and leading industry. The production launch of this project is a pragmatic move by Nantong to concentrate on tackling key core technologies and firmly grasp the initiative in development. Guo Hongwei said that before the end of the year, the project will also complete the installation and debugging of more than 100 pieces of equipment, striving to build a benchmark smart manufacturing factory in Nantong.
If TF-AMD is focusing on "upstream design," then Zhanhua Electronics Phase II is turning its attention to a broader blue ocean of applications. In the nearby Nantong High-tech Zone, this provincial major project, with a total investment of 1.445 billion yuan, will produce 560,000 square meters of printed circuit boards annually. Zheng Zhenshan, general manager of Shanghai Zhanhua Electronics (Nantong) Co., Ltd., introduced that as production capacity for high-speed optical modules continues to be released, its products will be widely used in cutting-edge fields such as high-end smartphones, smart wearable devices, automotive electronics, AR artificial intelligence, and low-orbit satellites. After reaching full production, it is expected to add 1.5 billion yuan in annual taxable sales.
Zhanhua Electronics Phase II actively integrates into the national "AI+" initiative, seizing opportunities in the digital economy and low-altitude economy. A large number of core components "made in Nantong" continue to make breakthroughs, providing strong support for the construction of computing power networks and the development of the commercial aerospace industry.
Climbing to New Heights to Unleash the Surging Momentum of Industrial Innovation
From deepening new tracks in electronic information to advancing toward the sea and mastering the deep blue, Nantong's industrial upgrading proceeds with firm and powerful steps. In Libao Town, Hai'an, the Puteng high-end offshore oil and gas equipment project, with a total investment of 500 million yuan, has already begun production, with an annual output of 120,000 tons of components for oil drilling and extraction equipment. The company holds more than 60 patents, and its developed OCTG special threads, with unique processes for resistance to high temperature, high pressure, and high corrosion, have won recognition in markets such as Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.
Offshore oil and gas development is vital to national energy security, and this project is a vivid footnote to Nantong's implementation of the maritime power strategy and its efforts to seize opportunities in deep-sea technology development. At present, Phase II of the project has already been put on the agenda, with plans to add 16.6 mu of land and begin construction in November this year.
While climbing higher and pursuing newness and quality improvement, traditional industries also contain broad space. Entering Rugao High-tech Zone, the Jiaming intelligent gravure printing machine base has been completed and put into production. The company continues to increase R&D efforts, optimizing key performance such as moisture permeability, oxygen permeability, and light blocking for flexible packaging. With an annual production capacity of 150 large gravure printing machines, it promotes the packaging and printing industry's leap toward high-end and intelligent development. Cao Chengzhi, general manager of Jiangsu Jiaming Intelligent Manufacturing Technology Co., Ltd., admitted frankly, "In Rugao, I have personally felt the warm 'one-stop' and 'nanny-style' services provided by governments and departments at all levels, and this is also the most core consideration for the company in choosing to settle in Rugao."
Shipbuilding and marine engineering are core pillars of the marine economy. Nantong closely follows the main line of "intelligent transformation, digital transformation, and network connectivity" to push the industry up the value chain, a firm response to the strategies of building a manufacturing powerhouse and a maritime power. In the Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Service Industry Cluster Zone of the Nantong Development Zone, an industrial highland gathering global wisdom is rapidly rising. The carrier has a total building area of about 50,000 square meters, focusing on key links such as R&D and design, AI empowerment, engineering general contracting, and supporting services, and striving to build an industrial ecosystem matrix centered on "one industrial map, one distinctive carrier, a batch of innovation platforms, one industrial fund, one branded event, and one set of special policies."
The park works with universities and institutes such as Southeast University and Harbin Engineering University to build a shipbuilding and marine engineering university alliance with deep integration of industry, academia, research, and application. It has now gathered more than 30 shipbuilding and marine engineering service enterprises, including internationally renowned classification societies as well as Hanchen Elite, Haicang Technology, and Qiangsi Digital Technology, continuously empowering innovation in the shipbuilding and marine engineering industry.
Improving Quality to Paint a Vivid Picture of People's Well-Being
The value of industrial projects lies not only in strengthening chains and promoting industry, but also in the well-being of the people. In the Hai'an Development Zone, the Ronghe Health Care Center, with a total investment of 200 million yuan, has been completed and is in trial operation. This is the first health care project laid out in Nantong by China Everbright Group. Relying on the mature operating system of nearly 200 institutions under Everbright Senior Care across the country, it innovatively creates a composite model of "medical care + health care + leisure vacation + agricultural cultural tourism + N," and builds a CCRC continuing care retirement community integrating home, community, institutional, and residential elderly care. Special services such as in-home hot springs, intelligent sleep monitoring, and long-term rental of health care apartments continuously improve elderly care supply.
The launch and operation of the Ronghe Health Care Center injects new momentum into Nantong's silver economy and accelerates the realization of the beautiful vision that people can "have care and security in old age."
Health care projects protect the warmth of sunset years, while distinctive commercial districts light up the city's bustle. As night falls, the Shijinli tourism and leisure district in Rugao is brightly lit and crowded. This service industry project, with a total investment of 730 million yuan, adheres to the design concept of "interpreting tradition through modernity," organically blending the texture of old city alleys with trendy consumption scenes. It gathers more than 80 merchants and regularly launches special activities such as national trend markets, folk performances, and nighttime carnivals, creating a 24-hour immersive open City Walk district.
"The district's average daily foot traffic during holidays exceeds 10,000, and annual sales exceed 100 million yuan. Last year, it was also successfully selected into the province's list of 50 nighttime consumption cluster business districts (pedestrian streets)," said Liu Qiang, general manager of Nantong Shijinli Commercial Management Co., Ltd. Closely following the main line of expanding domestic demand and promoting consumption, Shijinli will continue to activate the vitality of the old city through business format iteration, injecting lasting momentum into the high-quality development of the city's service industry.
The tide never ceases, and practical work never stops. A one-day observation itinerary is both a concentrated review of a new industrial landscape and an on-site empowerment for benchmarking and catching up. Changes in projects reflect progress in transformation; the prosperity of industry supports the hope of development. Everyone expressed that they will continue to deeply implement the deployment requirements of the 14th Municipal Party Congress, ride the momentum, compare, learn, catch up, and surpass, focus on attracting investment, optimizing services, and promoting implementation, turn project construction blueprints into real development scenes, and strive to write a new Nantong answer sheet on the track of high-quality development.
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