Haimen is home to a booming shipping industry. [Photo/WeChat account: haimenfabu]

Haimen, a county-level city in Nantong, is offering 18 pieces of industrial land with a total area of 269.87 hectares to attract global investors, which was announced at a news conference held on April 11.

The land is spread throughout 11 districts and towns, including the Haimen Economic and Technological Development Zone and the Dearshiqiao International Home Textile Industrial Park, with the largest piece covering an area of about 33 hectares.

According to Shen Xudong, the city's executive vice-mayor, the local government aims to attract high-end industrial projects mainly involving marine engineering equipment, port machinery, intelligent manufacturing, high-end home textiles, bio-medicine, new materials, robot manufacturing, and high-end culture and tourism.

The official stressed that the city is sincere but strict in its investment vetting. Investing companies must have good credit and abundant capital and meet the following requirements:

For domestically-funded projects costing a total of between 500 million yuan ($70.95 million) and 1 billion yuan, registered capital must be no less than 50 million yuan. For those with a total of between 1 billion yuan and 5 billion yuan in investment, registered capital must be no less than 100 million yuan. For those costing 5 billion yuan or more, the minimum registered capital must be at least 200 million yuan.

The registered capital of foreign-funded projects must be at least one third of the total investment amount.

The Haimen Economic and Technological Development Zone requires that investment be at least 5 million yuan per mu (0.067 hectare), equipment investment be no less than 2 million yuan per mu, and tax revenue be no less than 300,000 yuan per mu.

The Dearshiqiao International Home Textile Industrial Park, Haimen Port New Area, Linjiang New Area, and Sanchang Industrial Park require that the total investment, equipment investment, and tax revenue be at least 4.5 million yuan per mu, 1.5 million yuan per mu, and 250,000 yuan per mu, respectively.

In the towns of Changle, Sijia, Zhengyu, Yudong and Yuelai, total investment, equipment investment, and tax revenue must be at least 4 million yuan per mu, 1 million yuan per mu, and 200,000 million yuan per mu, respectively.

Construction should not exceed 24 months, but this timeframe can be extended with the approval of the district (or town) and municipal governments.

Haimen is the first county-level city north of the Yangtze River in Jiangsu province to have its regional GDP exceed 100 billion yuan.

In 2019, the city ranked among China's top 20 and Jiangsu's top 8 in terms of comprehensive strength, industrial economy, sci-tech innovation, environmental protection, and business environment.

Its taxable sales in the industrial and service sectors increased more than 25 percent year on year in the first quarter of this year in spite of the novel coronavirus outbreak, while the public budget revenue was valued at 1.92 billion yuan.