Government officials and business representatives lay a foundation stone for a cold chain logistics center in the Nantong Comprehensive Free Trade Zone on Aug 23. [Photo/ntfabu.com]

A foundation laying ceremony for a cold chain logistics center was held in the Nantong Comprehensive Free Trade Zone in Nantong, East China’s Jiangsu province, on Aug 23.

The center was funded by Metropoly Holdings, a boutique real estate development, investment, and asset management firm founded in Hong Kong in 1993.

The center covers an area of 9.47 hectares and has received 620 million yuan ($86.74) in investment. It is the company’s first large-scale cold chain logistics project in Nantong.

According to authorities, the project will wake use of advanced logistics models and information technology to build a food material center to engage in purchasing, storage, delivery, and sales.

Four centers specializing in trade, logistics, finance, and information, respectively, will be built to form an environmentally friendly and highly efficient food supply chain in the Yangtze River Delta region.

The project will help in the industrial transformation and development of the zone, said Fan Zhiqiang, director of the zone’s administrative bureau. 

According to Fan, the center is expected to earn 30 billion yuan and pay 800 million yuan in taxes in total 10 years after it begins operating.