A Nantong port. [Photo provided by Xu Congjun to en.nantong.gov.cn]

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the opening up of coastal port cities in China, including Nantong in Jiangsu province.

When it comes to opening-up, Nantong, Jiangsu province, has always had a first-mover advantage, as it has an export-oriented economy.

To date, Nantong's actual utilization of foreign capital has exceeded $50 billion, the city's annual foreign trade has surpassed 300 billion yuan ($41.39 billion), and more than 100,000 local businesspeople have invested or started businesses overseas.

Back in 1981, Nantong became home to the first Sino-foreign joint venture in Jiangsu. Eleven years later, the city rolled out policies to strengthen its efforts in reform and opening-up.

Since then, an increasing number of businesses seeking to tap into the Chinese market have built a presence in Nantong. Numerous high-end manufacturing and modern service projects with an investment of over $100 million each have landed in the city.

To date, foreign enterprises have invested more than $50 billion in Nantong, helping form a strong shipbuilding and marine engineering industry represented by NACKS, a modern textile industry featuring Toray and Teijin, a bio-pharmaceutical industry revolving around Merck and WuXi AppTec, a modern paper-making industry dominated by OJI and APP, and chemical engineering and new material industries led by Mitsubishi Rayon and PTM.

In addition to attracting investment, Nantong has explored going abroad in the late 1990s. Overseas investment by local businesses increased from $14.93 million in 2000 to nearly $10 billion in 2023.

The investment fields of Nantong businesspeople have also expanded from traditional to emerging industries such as new energy and marine engineering equipment, and businesspeople have been active in cross-border mergers and acquisitions.

In the future, Nantong will continue opening wider to the world by improving its business environment and establishing platforms to facilitate opening-up.