Once dubbed “Ghost Town”, the Inner-Mongolian city of Ordos this week held its 2019 Ordos Targeted Investment Promotion event for processing industries in Nanjing, signing cooperation projects worth a total of ¥55.48 billion, 34 percent of which shall directly benefit Nanjing and the Yangtze River Delta.
Ordos has come a long way since western media criticised the large-scale government projects, such as shopping malls, that stood empty for, in some cases, many years.
The city is one of China’s 14 large-scale coal bases, a stereotypical image that Ordos authorities are keen to shed. This week’s investment promotion event is but one initiative aimed at changing that.
In Nanjing were signed a total of 49 cooperation projects with 51 companies, involving the fields of new energy, intelligent manufacturing, environmental protection technology, high-end manufacturing, and others. 17 projects lie within the Yangtze River Delta region, according to a press release from the Ordos Municipal Government.
Behind the data is a clear path for Ordos and the Yangtze River Delta to move towards a wider, deeper and higher level of cooperation, a strong driving force for the pursuit of high-quality development from a “coal mining economy” to “multiple areas”.
Ordos is one of China’s richest regions; with a PPP per capita GDP of US$65,192 in 2016. Proven coal reserves amount to 210.2 billion tons, accounting for approximately one-sixth of the country’s total. Proven reserves of natural gas are 4.92 trillion cubic metres, accounting for approximately one-third of the country’s total.
As China’s “city of coal” and “city of gas”, Ordos has taken a series of measures to enhance the momentum of its high-quality development.
Ranked as the safest city in China for many years, Ordos has created a modern urban living environment with stable law and order, that is a pleasant place to live, as well as being convenient for tourism and business.
Guided by the conviction that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets”, Ordos has been identified by the United Nations as the world’s first “Eco-economic Demonstration Area”. The “Kubuqi Desertification Control Model” provided China with her plan for global desertification control, while in March, 2019, the Ordos Comprehensive Free Trade Zone was officially opened.
