A single commencement ceremony for a raft of major projects breaking ground in the first quarter of 2022 in Nantong city, in East China's Jiangsu province, was held on Feb 8.

Hai'an, a county-level city administered by Nantong, plans to start work on 26 projects, with total investment of 16.65 billion yuan ($2.62 billion), including 10 projects worth 1 billion yuan and above.

Jiangsu Lianfa Group Co Ltd, a local textiles giant, invests 1 billion yuan to construct a garment manufacturing center in the Hai'an Economic and Technological Development Zone, with a total floor space of 52,000 square meters. [Photo/WeChat account: hafbwx]

Among the projects breaking ground in Q1 in Hai'an are 24 engaged in the manufacturing sector. These are mainly focused on the areas of high-end complete equipment, 5G communications, new energy and auto parts.

Hai'an is widely said to have achieved a great start in attracting investment. One example is Celxpert (Nantong) Electronics Co Ltd, which invested 2 billion yuan to build a lithium battery production plant in the Hai'an High-tech Industrial Development Zone. The parent company of Celxpert Nantong is a Taiwan-listed group, boasting the world's largest cell and battery pack performance and safety evaluation laboratory.

Overall, additional investment is said to play an important role in promoting Hai'an's development. There are 10 additional investment projects among the 26 projects.

Jiangsu EMT New Material Co Ltd will build a high-performance polyester base film production plant in Hai'an with an investment of 2 billion yuan, which is the fourth investment there being undertaken by the company.