Qidong, a county-level city in Nantong, Jiangsu province, is dedicated to developing its high-end manufacturing industry by cooperating with Shanghai and has established a number of investment promotion groups.

An integrated degradable new materials project, costing around 10 billion yuan ($1.42 billion), was signed in March and will be built in Huafeng (Qidong) Industrial Park. 

A microfiber project worth 20 billion yuan is also operating in the industrial park, with a taxable sales value which exceeded 2.2 billion yuan in 2019.

The two projects are both the result of Qidong's investment promotion in Shanghai.

At the beginning of this year, the county-level city established investment promotion sub-offices in Shanghai and dispatched 19 groups to attract investment there. It has also developed cooperative relations with several famous consultative institutions in Shanghai.

Qidong aims to attract investment mainly in marine engineering and health technology industries. It is also further cultivating emerging industries such as new materials, new energy, electronic information and semiconductor equipment.

A growing number of Shanghai enterprises have also decided to set up branches in Qidong.

The drug R&D laboratory operated by AppTec, which is headquartered in Pudong, Shanghai, started operating in Qidong at the end of 2019, with 450 million yuan in investment. Nearly 500 researchers holding doctoral or master's degrees are currently working at the lab.

In addition, construction has begun on an R&D center operated by AppTec in the county-level city, costing 5 billion yuan in total. The center is expected to produce 5 to 10 billion yuan in annual taxable revenue after being completed.

Inlaylink, a well-known provider of data collection and hardware products located in Shanghai, has also set up an intelligent factory in Qidong and has helped the county-level city make strides in the modern intelligent manufacturing industry.