Hekou town in Rudong county provides access to better life for locals through developing industries and agriculture. [Photo/ntfabu.com]

ZTT Group, based in Hekou town in Rudong county, which is administered by Nantong in East China's Jiangsu province, boasts 76 subsidiaries, six overseas plants and more than 16,000 employees.

It has formed a multi-industrial pattern covering information communications, smart grids, marine equipment, new energy and new materials. In 2020, the sales revenue of ZTT Group exceeded 70 billion yuan ($10.8 billion).

"With a short distance between my home and company, I can earn 5,600 yuan every month," an employee of ZTT Group said with delight. Some 16,000 locals of Hekou town got job opportunities from ZTT Group, which is a fruit of the town's prosperous industries.

Last year, Hekou town achieved a total industrial output value of 18.5 billion yuan, industrial taxable sales of 16.1 billion yuan and service industry taxable sales of 1.8 billion yuan.

In addition to industry, Hekou town also puts efforts into agriculture development. There are many villagers engaged in livestock and poultry farming in Shuangang village in Hekou town, but most are dispersed and on a small scale, with low benefits.

In 2011, led by the Party committee and village committee, the Shuanggang laying hen professional cooperative was established. At present, it has 40 members. The Yashan livestock and poultry farm is one of them.

Feng Yashan, owner of the farm, invested over 30 million yuan on purchasing intelligent breeding equipment. Differing from the dirty and messy traditional henhouse, the new ones can supply feed and water automatically, as well as clean fences and collect eggs.

With intelligent equipment, the workers in the farm only need to pick up eggs, grade them according to their quality and package them, much less work than before. Last year, the 18 workers earned 800,000 yuan in total.