Integrative Economy

Economic Strength

The local economy maintained a sound momentum in 2005. Its economic competitiveness and the overall economic strength have respectively ranked the 72nd and the 82nd places for years running. Its output value hit 12.919 billion RMB yuan, a year-on-year rise of 12.7%. Among it, the secondary industry contributed 17.7 billion yuan, a rise of 16%. The urban and rural residential incomes reached RMB 16,350 and RMB 6,900 yuan per capita, up 13.7% and 13% respectively. The fiscal revenue totaled 1.66 billion yuan in 2005, among which the local financial revenue contributed 765 million yuan, representing increases of 21.3% and 24.6% over the year before.

Rural Economy

Ninghai has abundant agricultural resources. It is well known as a place teeming with fish and rice in East Zhejiang. There are lots of bamboos, trees, tea and fruits, fish, shrimps, crabs, shellfish and algae. It is therefore an important base, either national-level or provincial-level, of grains, tea, tangerine, duck eggs and aquatic products. It has developed ten most important categories of farm produce, namely, tea, bamboo shoots, tangerine, crabs and shrimps, shellfish, fish, chicken, goat and mountainous vegetables. The national-or-provincial-level famous brands include Wanghai Tea, Ninghai White Loquat, Quanfeng Watermelon, Ninghai Chicken, Changjie Razor Clam, and Yilu Orange etc. Other famous products include Dajiahe sea prawn, black crab, mud clams, Xidian oyster and Changjie mud snails, large yellow croakers and bass etc, which are mostly exported abroad.

In 2005, Ninghai realized an agricultural added value of 1.69 billion RMB yuan, a rise of 4% over the previous year. The output of such featured products as aquatic products, tea and chicken totaled 1.46 billion RMB, up 11.6%. 25 key agricultural enterprises of the county generated a sales volume of 720 million RMB yuan, up 14.3%, among which, two enterprises yielded an output value of more than 100 million RMB respectively. The construction for agricultural bases is speeding up. Work has been advancing on construction of Sanmen Bay Baili (50 kilometers) Eco-friendly Aquatic Belt and of the 10,000 Chinese mu of mountainous vegetable base. The Green Farm Produce Base (of 100,000 Chinese mu, or 6700 hectares) is taking shape and has been designated as a national demo base of agriculture. Remarkable results have been in land transfer, with total area of 273,000 Chinese mu of land having been transferred. The farmers cooperative organizations are developing quickly, with many special cooperatives newly set up. Brand strategies for farm produce are implemented and more efforts are made to popularize new farming technology. A total number of 17,670 farmers were trained in the year. Besides, the standardization and regulation work of sea areas have been strengthened, and as a result, Ninghai was appraised as a model in utilizing sea areas by the state authorities.

Modern Industry

Industry is the pillar of the local economy. So far, Ninghai has formed an industrial framework of ten major trades, such as mechanical and electronics, mold manufacturing, household electric appliances, plastics and rubber, metal products, hardware and valves, stationery and sports products, textiles, foodstuffs, petrochemicals and auto parts. By the end of 2005, there are 580 enterprises of scale in Ninghai, which turned over an output value of 17.7 billion RMB yuan, up 16% over the previous year. The six advantageous industries like molding and stationery keep the vitality by generating an output value of 10.8 billion yuan, accounting for 61% of the total. The construction for industrial parks is picking up steam, such as the Ningdong and Meiqiao tracts. Six service platforms of mold development, design and testing has been set up. Ninghai exerted more efforts to transfer the mode of economic growth and upgrade the traditional industries. In 2005, it put in a sum of 2.3 billion RMB yuan for technical innovation, an increase of 16.5% over the year before. The high-tech business has been developing fast, with the output reaching 5.2 billion yuan in 2005, up 26% over the year before. The county developed one China’s famous brand, 2 China’s famous products, 3 national inspection-free products, 17 provincial famous products and 11 city-level famous trademarks in the year 2005.

Tertiary Industry

The industrial coupling development strategy has been well implemented in Ninghai and the master plan for the development of service industry has been compiled. The eco-tourism and recreation business are developing fast and the overall plan for tourism has been mapped out. Ninghai has newly developed the scenic spots of Five Hills Caves and the Lianghuang Mount, etc. and has been advancing the pro-phase work of Ninghai Bay Holiday Resort and other key projects. In 2006, it staged the third China (Ninghai) Xu Xieke Travel Festival and the fourth Shanghaiese Visting Ninghai promotion activity in Shanghai. The former has made its way to becoming a top 100 festival of the country. In 2005, Ninghai received a total number of 1.28 million tourists, and yielded a tourist revenue of 650 million RMB yuan. The commerce and trade are seeing soaring development too, as a result of the planning of the commercial service outlets. The social retail sales volume reached 5.04 billion RMB yuan, up 12%. The chain store business in rural areas is developing quickly. About 200 model stores have been set up in the rural areas and chain stores have covered 11 towns. The banking industry is rendering more support to boost the local economy. By the end of 2005, the deposit balance in various banks reached 9.2 billion RMB yuan, the loans balance 10.5 billion, up 21% and 24% respectively.

Open Economy

The invitation of investments is taking on a good momentum. In 2005, Ninghai approved another 51 foreign-funded projects, with the actual amount of foreign capital utilized reaching 55 million US dollars. The average investment for a single foreign-funded project increased too. It approved the setup of 20 two-million-US-dollar projects and 31 wholly- foreign-owned projects in the year. The invitation of domestic investments achieved a breakthrough too, with a total amount of 3.5 billion RMB yuan, involving such projects as Tian’an Electrical Appliances and Taishan Paper-coated Plaster projects. Besides, the foreign trade takes a robust momentum. The self-operated import and export trade volume reached 680 million US dollars, among which the export took up 620 million, representing increases of 29.8% and 30% respectively. The export product structure keeps improving too. The export of electromechanical products reached 420 million US dollars, up 30%, accounting for 66% of the total export volume. The Going-Global Strategy has been well implemented, which has resulted in the setup of eight ventures overseas in 2005.

Advantageous Industries

Molding: Ninghai enjoys a prestigious fame for its molding industry home and abroad and is awarded the title of Mold Production Base of China. It is home to more than 1700 plastic processing and mold making enterprises, involving over 30,000 molding technical people. They mainly produce medium-sized or large plastic injection moulds and parts of automobiles, air-conditioners, TV sets, washing machines and fridges. They can also make some small molding items and parts of stationery, electronics and kitchen utensils. In 2004, the molding business of the county recorded a turnover of 3.7 billion RMB yuan, a 7% of the country’s total.The Ninghai Molding Center, a project with an investment of 500 million RMB yuan and a project listed in the 10th Five-Year Plan of the country, covers an area of 500 Chinese mu. The first-phase investment for it, totaling 29.5 million RMB yuan, has been put in place, 18 million of which is for import of world advanced molding equipment and the ancillary equipment.

Stationery: Stationery is another advantageous industry of Ninghai, a county known as China’s Stationery Production Base and Zhejiang Stationery Trademark & Brand Base. The major stationery products are long-tailed clips, pencil sharpeners, staplers, glue water, hole punchers, loose-leaf binder and file cabinets, etc.，A large number of strenuous products have come out, such as the Deli Pencil Sharper, Binbin Stapler, Songhe Solid Glue, Xingwei utility knife, Aiwen Long-tailed Clip, and so on. The stationery business in Ninghai is 80% export-oriented. The products are sold to over 80 countries in America, EU, the Middle East and the Southeast Asia. In 2004, the stationery business in Ninghai generated an output of 3.5 billion RMB yuan. There are over 300 stationery businesses, with people in the trade totaling 30,000. 42 of the businesses are scale enterprises, with a turnover aggregated 2.04 billion RMB yuan. They possess 89 domestically-registered trademarks and 46 overseas-registered ones. The Deli Group, the bellwether in China’s stationery business, was appraised as a Top 10 in China; the Binbin Stationery, which is mainly bound for export, won the titles of Zhejiang Famous Trademark and Zhejiang Famous Product.

Auto Parts: the auto parts business is a sunrise business in Ninghai which is famed as the Auto Parts Center in East China. The major products are synchronous belts, sealing elements, air-conditioner use thermo expansion valve, lighting equipment, etc. There are about 100 auto parts businesses, with an annual output of one billion RMB yuan. Among them, there are 34 enterprises of scale, which turned over an output of 500 million yuan. The major auto parts businesses include Ningbo Jiebao Group Co. Ltd, Jianxin Plastics and Rubber Co. Ltd, and Tianpu Auto Parts Co. Ltd. The rubber fuel pipe produced by the Tianpu Auto Parts was even cited as a national-level new product.