The award ceremony for the first "China Home Appliance Brands Base" was held in Nantou Town, Zhongshan on February 26.[Photo by Yu Zhaoyu]

The modern production lines of Nantou-based home appliance manufacturing company.[File photo/Zhongshan Daily]

The award ceremony for the first "China Home Appliance Brands Base" was held in Nantou Town, Zhongshan on February 26. 

Wu Kunke, Secretary of the Township Party of Nantou, said that early in 2004, the town was selected as the country's first town-level "China Home Appliance Industrial Base." After 15 years of rapid development, Nantou has attracted 4,200 enterprises of various types. These enterprises include more than 3,000 household appliance manufacturers. To date, the town is also home to 59 national and provincial famous brands. 

In 2018, Nantou's industrial output was valued at a total of 70 billion yuan, of which the annual yield of the household appliance sector accounted for 48 billion yuan. The town's gross production value and total exports were 17.06 billion yuan and 21.82 billion yuan respectively. This made Nantou Town one of the most influential industrial centers in the national home appliance industry.

In February 2017, Nantou signed a cooperative agreement with China Household Electrical Appliances Association (CHEAA). Both sides agreed to collaborate in the development of Nantou into the first "China Home Appliance Brands Base." Since then, the Nantou township government has rolled out a series of beneficial policies and established a 60 million yuan special fund to encourage enterprises to strengthen industry-university-research cooperation. Additionally, these policies were designed to improve core technologies, manufacturing techniques, and brand effects of the companies.

On October 15, 2018, the China National Light Industry Council, together with CHEAA, issued a statement which awarded Nantou the title of "China Home Appliance Brands Base."

"In the future, Nantou Town will endeavor to create a household appliance manufacturing base, a household appliance industry area, and a brand gathering area," Wu Kunke added. The town is expected to become a 100-billion-yuan level home appliance industry base and the first green, intelligent, industrial home appliance center in China's light industry.