1.        The coastal area of Rugao lies in the southernmost of the city, which have a 48-kilometer-long waste line, and the deep-water coastline is 17.2 kilometers long. It covers an area of more than 120 square kiometers on the south of Nantong (from Nanjing to Nantong) Highway, where there are 25administrative villages and more than 80,000 people. There are three green islands called Changqingsha, Hangbeisha and Youyisha in the middle of the Changjiang River. The development of the coastal area has bright future and great potentialities because of its unique regional and resource superiority. Ever since 2003,the Party Committee and government in Jiangsu Province have put forward that the coastal areas should be constructed into a vigorously developing region of advanced productive forces Li Yuanchao, the secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee, Luo Yimin, the secretary of Nantong Party Committee, and Ding Dawei, the mayor of Nantong etc, once inspected the coastal areas of Rugao Personally. When inspecting, Li Yuanchao pointed out that the Rugao harbor should firmly catch the rare historical opportunity of the coastal economic growing, quicken the development and make an effort to take the lead in springing up.

2.        Rugao took the lead in Jiangsu in working out the overall plan of the coastal development. On June 18,2003,the plan was appraised and discussed by the Jiangsu Social Science Institute, which led the related branches and committee, and the related branches in Jiangsu and Nantong, and the leaders and experts of the famous colleges and Rugao People's Congress Standing Committee formally approved the plan.

3.        The guiding ideology of Rugao coastal development: depending on the coastal resources; according to the thanking of “Being in harmony with the south of Jiangsu, getting onto the track of Shanghai, and moving towards the world”, putting forward the combination, exploitation, opening and development of the coastal economy at a high starting-point, efficiency, grade and quality; increasing the proportion of coastal economy in the municipal economy as a whole; and promoting the quick rising of Rugao economy.

4.        General objective of Rugao coastal development: Building a new-typed modern harbor city of industrialization by developing the industrial bases close to the harbor, the production and processing bases, the bases of the modern articles’ circulation, and the bases of relaxation and traveling.

5.        The industrial orientation of Rugao coastal development: regarding the petrochemical and shipping production as the leading industries; taking the fine chemical industry and the processing of machines and electronic products to from a complete set of industries; and depending on electric power and energy, circulation of articles, storehouse reservation, new high-technology, ecological tourism and modern agriculture. All of the above forming a coastal economic plate.

6.        Rugao Harbor Economic Development Zone has good infrastructure. For ten year, it has put 800 million yuan on the infrastructure and has realized“五通一平”,so it can meet the need of developing in parts of the zone.

(1)   Roads: The roads within the zone have become a network, all of whose surface are made of high-standard cement or pitch.

(2)   Water supply: With water from the Changjiang River, the waterworks within the zone produces high-quality water and has a daily water supply of 30,000 tons. Besides water supply projects of 600,000 tons are planned to be constructed within the areas near the Changjiang River.

(3)   Power supply: There is a 110-kilovoct and a 35000-kilovoct transformer substation within the zone and the power supply rate of the enterprises in the zone is 100%.

(4)   Dewatering: The rain is directly drained off into the Changjiang River by the system of the water supply and drainage which is constructed synchronously with the road constructed synchronously with the road construction. The waste water within the zone is drained off by the sewage conduit into the sewage treatment center which has a daily treatment capacity of 40,000 tons.

(5)   Communications: There is a telecommunication bureau which can provide all kinds of telecommunication services such as international calls, domestic calls, telex, fax and internet etc.

(6)   Gas supply: The heat and power paints within the zone may and power plants within the zone may offer gas to the enterprises in the zone.

7.        The regional transportation superiority of the Rugao coastal areas.

8.        Roads: Roads running from the east to the west are the Nintong Highway (from Nanjing to Nantong) in the north of the zone, and the First-class Coastal Road in the zone. Roads running from the south to the east of the zone and the First-class Rugang (from Rugao city to the Rugao harbour) Road which is connected to the 204 National Road. The Shugang Road is connected to the Gaozhang(from Rugao to Zhangjiagang)Bus Ferry. It is 20 minutes of bus briver from the east of the zone to the Sutong(from Suzhou to Nantong) Bridge and it is also 20 minutes of bus drive from the were of the zone to the Jiangyin (from Jingjiang to Jiangyin ) Bridge. It takes 20 minutes to go from the zone to the south of Jiangsu by the Gaozhang Bus Ferry and it takes 40 minutes to go from the zone to Shanghai by the Coastal Highway.

9.        Harbour: Rugao harbor belongs to the Nantong Harbor Group and Shanghai Harbor Association, and it is a national first-rate open port. It is only about ten minutes of bus river from the Rugao harbor to the Nantong harbor from which there are ships and boats sailing to Japan, Korea, Singapore, America, the West Europe and Hongkong every week. After the 50,000-ton public port for the bulk cargoes and the containers are constructed, it can meet the need of the enterprises to import and export all kinds of goods from the Rugao harbor.

10.    Railway: The Rugao Harbor Feeder Railway for special use and under program can be directly connected to the Xinchang (from Xinyi to Changxing) Railway and the Ninqi (from Nanjing to Qidong ) Railway.

11.    Airport: It is 30 minutol of bus drive from the zone to the Nantong airport from which people may fly to Beijing, Guangzhou and Xiamen.

12.    The coastline superiority.

13.    The Gugao harbor is situated at the middle branch of the Changjiang River and at the concave bank area. The channel for special use of Rugao harbour is 550----650 meters wide and the water there is 10 meters deep. The coastline that can be directly used is as long as 17 kilometers and the whole coastline is joined up. With deep water close to the bank, there is no silting up with slight washing of the water, and huge ships of 50,000 tons can navigate there                            14 berth of 10,000—50,000 tons can be built along the coastline at Yonlaisha directly faces the main channel of the Changjiang River, where all the huge ships in and out of the Changjiang River can navigate and anchor, and where more than 20 ports of thousands of tons can be built. Rugao harbor is a very precious reserve resource at the lower reaches of the Changjiang River and it is suitable for developing the port article circulation industry of great handling capacity and for industrial projects of large scale.

14.    The superiority of the environment and water resource.

15.    Rugao coastal area has matchless superiority of environment and water resource became it turned into land late and there is rich fresh water resource without environment pollution. It has a subtropical moisty climate. The air is of the nation’s first-class standard and the water within the port reaches the second-class standard, all of which are beneficial for building industrial project that will use great amounts of water. The three green precious islands called ChangjiangSha, Hongbeisha and Youyisha in the middle of the Changjing River have been decided as basis of the environment –friendly food . The Qianchonglang rice and the Liishawang watermelon have been attested by the nation to be environment-friendly food. Because of the special environmental resource, the zone has become the most suitable living place for people and it is beneficial for building , the bases of relaxation ,travel and modern agriculture .

16.    The superiority of the land resource

17.    The land at the Rugao coastal development starting zone and the three green islands cover a total area of 30 square kilometers, most of which are state-owned beaches and wet land. There are few residents and buildings in the zone, so it can be exploited in parts and it is suitable for building project that will use large amonts of land. The investor may gain greater economic beneficial results with lower land cost.

18.    The superiority of macro-policy

In order o carry out the coastal development strategy, the Party Committee and government of the Jiangsu Province, formulated supporting policies from the following eight aspects: opening, the uses of land, the investment and circulation of funds, census register, the protection of water environment, the coastline management, the port development and combined exploitation.

19.    Rugao coastal development zone specially enjoys the preferential policies on finance, tax, land and talented persons, all of which will certainly promote the competition capacity of the enterprises settled in Rugao coastal areas.

20.    The superiority of labor forces

21.    Rugao has two demonstration high schools of national level, four key high schools of Jiangsu provincial and Nantong municipal level, and twenty-seven vocational schools of all kinds in which there are 250,000 teachers and students and from which there are several thousand of technicians entering the society. Receiving many years of education, having high technical quality, and getting low payment for their work, all of there are the three main characteristics of the labor forces in Rugao.

22.    The service superiority

23.    With the down-to-earth attitude and high efficiency as the foundation, Rugao actively changes the government functions, cuts back on the administratively examined and approved items, imitates the operation of the general service company in order to provide high-quality service for the coming investors and persons who start an undertaking. In May, 2001, Rugao took the lead in setting up the “administrative the service center” and forming the one-station-typed examination and approval service pattern, which is “one is responsible for collecting charges. Working together to make examination and approval. Handing and finishing in limited time” At the same time, Rugao set up economic environment supervisory center which put forth effort to check and correct all kinds of corrupt practices in economic environment, and gave protection to the enterprises to develop quickly. Moreover, the folkway in Rugao is unsophisticated, and the public security plays an exemplary role throughout the country, so Rugao is universally acclaimed among the investors. The management committee of Rugao Harbor economic Development zone provides “one-door-typed” service for the proprietors in the zone and it combines management with service so that it offers complete and high-quality service to enterprises of different properties and types, and from different countries. At the same time, the committee refers to the national usual practices and the means of the market economy in order to provide all the proprietors with follow-up “one-dragon” service.

24.    Industrial superiority

25.    Storehouse reservation industry

At present, there is a 50,000-ton-level- petrochemical-use port and a 5,000-ton level bulk cargo port and three pork of one thousand ton level .In 2004, another four ports of more than 50,000 ton level will be built. Now, the port has a goods reservation capacity of 300,000 tons .In 2004, another 600,000-ton reservation capacity will be added and the Rugao harbor will become the biggest storehouse reservation has in the, idle of Jiangsu.

26.    Petrochemical industry

The petrochemical production has on a large scale and has formed an industrial chain.

27.    Steel industry

The steel industry in the Rugao area along the Changjiang River started relatively early. After the reform of the system and the recombination of the funds, the Rongxiang steel and Hongmao special steel have realized industrial upgrading.

28.    Shipping industry

Nantong Rongshon shipping-making project that will be set up will build a modern base for producing and processing ships and boats in China.

29.    Ecological agriculture

The small island named Changqingsha in the middle of the Changjiang River is a national base for environment-friend foods. With Qianchong Lang rice and liishawang watermelon as the main representatives, these foods have formed relatively popular market needs.