“To develop characteristic towns into the ‘new carriers of transformation and upgrade’ and to promote ‘industry-city-human-culture’ integration” has been included in the Zhongshan government work report of the year.

According to Liu Deng, Deputy Director of Zhongshan Development and Reform Bureau, the development plans of the first 18 characteristic towns have passed expert and department review. This year, municipal government has arranged 60 million yuan of special fund for characteristic towns construction. Most of the capital will be issued as award and subsidy in addition to the cost of earlier work.

Statistics shows that in the first 10 months of the year, up to 58 projects within the first batch of characteristics towns are under construction, with 3.615 billion yuan of fixed investment, and 32 of which are newly-started projects, with 1.841 billion yuan of fixed investment. It is expected that 50 enterprises will be introduced into the first characteristic towns this year.