TheRiseoftheNant_省略_egyofNantongCity_.docx

The Rise of the Nantong Harbour and the Development Strategy of Nantong City Zeng Zungu Geography Department of Nanjing University Nantong in Jiangsu Province is one of the 14 coastal port cities designated to open to the outside world. Recent years saw the increasing importance of the Nantong Harbour, with its cargo handling capacity miraculously shooting up from 2.96 million tonnes in 1980 to 10.19 million tonnes in 1985. Nantong has grown from a lack luster inland river harbour into an important sea port of China and the hub of the river-sea coordinated transport system in the Yangtze River Valley. Although it is common for harbour and cities to depend on and promote each other, the relationship between Nantong Harbour and Nantong city has its own unique features： Firstly， Nantong is still inaccessible by railway and air, which is rare among large Chinese ports with cargo handling capacity that surpasses 10 million tonnes and even among the world;s port cities. Therefore, the rise of the Nantong Harbour pJays an even more prominent role in the development of Nantong city. Secondly, the rise of the Nantong Harbour is not entirely due to good local conditions, but rather due to economic development in the Yangtze River Valley as a whole under Chinas open-door policy. Thus for Nantong city, the development of the Nantong Harbour is undoubtedly a leading element which, in turn, demand Nantong city to readjust its role and reorganize its economic structure for a new stage of development. It is of vital importance and urgency for Nantong to grasp this favourable opportunity to reassess its needs under the current situation, formulate a realistic development strategy and do its best to implement it. Having carried out an initial study on the following issues, I put forward my views for discussion. I . Fully Understanding the Advantage of the Nantong Harbour. Nantong is one of the cities where the national industry was first developed. In the last century, the late Qing Dynasty (1644 1911) set up industrial businesses in the Nantong area. Since the founding of the Peopled Republic in 1949, Nantong has developed into an industrial city which en- 43 * 71994-2016 China Academic Journal Electronic Publishing House. All rights reserved, http:/www.cnki. gages mainly in textile and other light industries and becomes one of the 46 state defined key cities and one of the 33 comprehensive production bases of export commodities. Now the city has gained a reputation of ;/star city. Nantong has many advantages to lake. For example, it has the vast northern Jiangsu plain as its hinterland which is rich in livestock resources and it is favourably located with a fast rising harbour. These objective conditions play an important role in local economic development. To identify the major advantages calls for a comprehensive analysis. The economic development in Nantong, however, is hampered by some unfavourable conditions. While making a correct analysis of the conditions favourable for Nantongs economic development， I feel it necessary to probe into the unfavourable conditions and the possibility of improving them. Nantong still has no railway to link it up with the interior (this will be expounded in the last part of this article)； its economic power is not strong and the development of its surrounding areas is only average among Chinas coastal areas. Hence Nantong is short of capital and poor in technological development. Furthermore local resources lack variety and the supply of raw materials for its industry is unsatisfactory. Generally speaking, the major favourable conditions are the decisive factors for city development. These decisive factors, however, are not static. Under Nanjing historical conditions, they will change their nature. When appraising the advantageous factors, we should not do it purely from the * 44 * angle of a single locality or city； instead, we should view them within the context of the regional economic system or the national economic system and compare them with those of other cities. It is evident from history that the natural resources of northern Jiangsu were the main advantages of Nantong before the end of the Qing Dynasty. At that time, northern Jiangsu was one of the major producers of sea salt, cotton and handwoven cloth. The exchange, transportation and marketing of these products resulted in the formation and development of the city of Tongzhou (predecesor of present-day Nantong). After the downfall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, Nantong grew into national industrial base. Its cotton textile business while held an important position in China constituted Nantongs major advantage and promoted the citys various undertakings and became the decisive factor of urban development. In the last 30 years or more after the founding of New China in 1949, in particular in the last few years, great changes have taken place in Nantong. Its economy is no longer based on the exploitation of resources from northern Jiangsu but also on energy and raw and processed materials imported from the other parts of the country. Although the absolute value of the output of textile and other light industries is still on the increase in Nantong, their importance decreases in Nantong because of their development in other parts of China as a whole and in other cities in the Yangtze River Valley or in Jiangsu Province. So, with the diversification of the industrial base and the development of other economic sectors in 71994-2016 China Academic Journal Electronic Publishing House. All rights reserved, http:/www.cnki. Nantong, the importance of textile and other light industries keeps decreasing in the local economy. Nevertheless, the resources, textile and other light industries in northern Jiangsu Province still constitute the basic criteria for the development of Nantong, but not the major factors which play a decisive role. Judging by the actual situation, the chief advantage of Nantong lies in its harbour whose cargo handling capacity of which increases very rapidly in recent years, promoting the development of Nantong city in various ways. Moreover, Nantongs own favourable conditions, in particular its geographical location, provide great vistas for development. As the nearest port on the Yangtze River to the sea， the Nantong Harbour is 155 kilometres from the mouth of the Yangtze River in the east. It has very good conditions for harbour construction： a coastline of some 30 kilometres； stable river water flows, a silt-free navigation route which is more than 10 metres deep and 1.5-1.8 kilometres wide and can accommodate oceangoing ships and barges. In terms of conditions favourable for the Yangtze River sea and the Yangtze River land coordinated transport, Nantong is not inferior to Shanghai which is situated by the Huangpu River, a tributary of the Yangtze River. Nantong habour is considered an ideal site for the construction of a large comprehensive river port in the Yangtze River mouth area. However these good conditions are not exploited for a long time due to the (economic drawbacks and social factors created by history and, in particular. the backward economy in northern Jiangsu and the under developed land transport facilities. In the meantime, the Shanghai Harbour had developed into the largest sea port in China and the only port in the Yangtze River valley which could reach the sea. For more than 100 years, the Shanghai Harbour attracted half of the imports and exports of China and contained the development of other harbours on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. On the other hand Nantong Harbour served only part of northern Jiangsu and its cargo handling capacity increased at a snails pace. After the mid 1970s, especially with the implementation of the open policy in 1978, things have changed favourably for Nantong and Nantong Harbour. With the development of economy in the Yangtze River Valley and with the increase of economic ties with the outside world, the Shanghai Harbour was hardly able to cope with the pressing need of cargo transport, in particular the large quantities of commodities from places on the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River which had to be reshipped. The serious bottlenecks in handling shipments in the Shanghai Harbour had incurred great economic loss Lo China. It was therefore of vital importance to build a combination harbour on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River to ease the burden on the Shanghai Harbour. It was against this background that three berths were built for seagoing vessels at Harbour built in 1980 83 and the Langshan Sea Harbour Operational Zone. This marked a historical turn for Nantong from a local river port to a sea port, becoming the Yangtze .45 71994-2016 China Academic Journal Electronic Publishing House. All rights reserved, http:/www.cnki. river-sea transport hub on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and a part of the combination harbour. In terms of functions, the Nantong Harbour handled both local goods and the reshipment of goods from provinces on the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River. This situation gives birth to two economic hinterlands： di- rect and indirect (reshipment). It is at this point of time that the advantages of the geographical location of the Nantong Harbour are most evident. The Yangtze River Valley is the most populous and economically most developed region in China. In the future, with the further development of the lateral association between various provinces and municipalities and with the further increase of foreign links, the Yangtze River waterway will be further exploited for increase flow of goods between east and west and became arterial transport hub, extending east-west, for Chinas economic development. This will inevitably promote the further development of ports along the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, including the Nantong Harbour. Given the position of the Nantong Habour in the Yangtze River sea coordinated transport Nantong City may import huge quantities of domestic and foreign resources, capital, technology and equipment to develop production lines and explore the domestic and international markets. The superior geographical location of the Nantong Harbour also finds expression in the following fields： Firstly, the Nantong Harbour lies in the middle part of Chinas coastal area and 46 . largely on the border between north and south China. The rise of another coastal axle (extending south north) with the development of Chinas economy and the strengthening of the lateral association between various provinces and municipalities will inevitably shape up a powerful goods flow on sea. Taking advantage of its position on the border between the south and north, Nantong City may take in resources from both the south and the north and export products they need. Secondly, the Nantong Harbour is located in the economically under-developed northern Jiangsu, wedged between economically developed Shanghai and southern Jiangsu. Thus it could play a bridging role in promoting economic association between the two regions . In the meantime, it will help Nantong city absorb the resources of northern Jiangsu and the capital and technology of Shanghai and southern Jiangsu. The economic development in any region must be based on these basic conditions： resources, capital, technology and market, Judging from the above analysis, the Nantong Harbour can be a window of Nantong in the introduction of outside resources, capital and technology and a place from where Nantong may explore the outside markets. It will therefore play a decisive role in Nantongs future development. Thus the Nantong Harbour must be taken as the most precious "resource", and the drafting of the strategy for Nantong economic development must be based on the full exploitation of the Nantong Harbour. 71994-2016 China Academic Journal Electronic Publishing House. All rights reserved, http:/www.cnki. II Construction of a Foreign Trade Export Base by Exploiting the Nantong Harbour Nantong is one of the coastal open cities, shouldering the task of exploring foreign markets in return for foreign exchange earnings, foreign advanced technology, equipment and capital to promote the development of the interior. The city of Nantong is now one of the production bases of export commodities in China. In 1985, ils foreign trade purchases were valued at 896 million yuan. Some of its textiles and other light industrial products as well as arts and crafts enjoy good fam-e on the international market. Nantong's machine-tool exports make up 10 percent of the national total. But a careful analysis of the sources of export oriented goods organized by the foreign trade departments and the variety of export items reveals some questions. First, livestock and textiles and other light industrial products account for 90 percent of the total export value, while heavy and chemical industrial products hold a small proportion. Second, raw and processed materials and semi-finished products hold a heavy proportion, while heavily processed products hold a light proporlion. For example, in cotton cloth exports, the exports of grey cloth are more than prinled cloth? the exports of white filature silk are more than silk products； and the exports of goat's skin are more than leather products. Third, the quality of some products is not satisfactory and therefore affects their marketing. For example, canned meat fails the commodity test, hurting exports to the western European countries. Given the tense competition on the m- ternational market, Nantong needs to strengthen its adaptability in its export trade and needs to improve the variety and Ihe quality of its products and, at the same time, strive to reduce its production cost. This is aimed at sharpening its competitiveness on the international market. The above exposition shows that to continue to develop its export trade, and to become a consolidated production base of export commodities of China, Nantong has a lot of work to do and has a great potential to tap. In this regard, the Fumin Harbour Economic and Technological Development Zone, set up with the approval of the government, creates a good condition. By giving full play to the advantages of the Nantong Harbour and exploiting resources from the interior (in particular from the various provinces in the Yangtze River Valley), Nantong will be able to continue developing new export items and improving the structure of its export commodities. In this regard, Nantong has already taken a gratifying step. For example, the citric acid made with sweet potatoes brought in from the other provinces as raw materials is of excellent quality and is currently in short supply on the international market； export oriented rubber shoes made from rubber produced in southern China also enjoy good sales on the international market. I