The headlines today are full of positive economic news in the form of hundreds of projects being signed off during this autumn economic trade fair. Among them, plans for a China Lunar Exploration base in Nanjing’s far-flung and relatively under-developed Liuhe District.
Nanjing’s GDP in the first quarter of 2020 amounted to ¥324.741 billion yuan, an increase of 1.6 percent on the same period last year. As such, among cities in China with a 2019 GDP of over ¥1 trillion, Nanjing was the only one to have achieved growth in the first quarter of 2020 under the impact of the epidemic.
Such an economic momentum received a further shot in the arm this week, at the 2020 China Nanjing Golden Autumn Economy and Trade Fair. And China being China, the fair kickstarted competition between the various districts of Nanjing to bring home the most investment.
Today’s local media is therefore dominated by the results. Xuanwu District, for example, signed off on 23 projects totalling ¥33.2 billion. Jianye District managed to top that, with 40 projects worth ¥52.66 billion. In the northeast, Qixia District brought home 53 projects to the value of ¥62.85 billion.
Star of the show, however, was that of the often-forgotten Liuhe District. Sometimes regarded as the garden of Nanjing, Liuhe District yesterday signed off on 16 projects worth an incredible ¥73.174 billion.
Of the latter, fully ¥18 billion is headed for the Nanjing Space Science & Technology Innovation Industrial Park, reports Nanjing Daily.
An investment of the Chang’e to the Moon Aerospace Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd., the park will take lunar exploration as its theme and integrate it with scientific and technological innovation, research and development, and popular science education and experience.
The term being banded around these days in Liuhe is “leapfrog development”. Leading industries such as new energy, intelligent manufacturing, new generations of information technology and big health are booming in the former backwater, fueling the strong economic momentum that Nanjing as a whole has maintained, despite the ravages of Covid.
It has been said that Liuhe people feel forgotten, but they don’t care. With a ¥18 billion space base in their back garden, they will no longer be forgotten, and they absolutely won’t care who knows it.
