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Chapter 7.46: Shantou City


Chapter 7.46: Shantou City

Overview

Shantou is situated in the south- eastern part of Guangdong Province. It is 161 kilometres from east to west and 148 kilometres from north to south. Shantou has a coastline of 389 kilometres, starting in the east at Shangdong Village in Raoping County and ending in the west in Huilai County. Shantou Special Economic Zone was established in 1981. In 1991 the Zone was enlarged from 52.6 square kilometres to 234 square kilometres. Shantou administrates five districts (Longhu, Jinyuan, Shengping, Dahao and Hepu), one county (Nan'ao) and two county-level cities (Chaoyang and Chenghai). Major economic indicators are shown in Table 7.46.1.

Table 7.46.1: Major economic indicators, Shantou City

Item

2000

2001

Population (millions)

4.59

4.62

Gross domestic product (billion RMB)

47.79

46.099

GDP per capita (thousand RMB)

10.529

10.017

Disposable income per capita (thousand RMB)

   

       Urban residents

8.706

4.343

       Rural residents

8.951

4.089

Savings (billion RMB)*

52.614

57.823

Investment in fixed assets (billion RMB)

11.152

10.184

Value-added of primary industry (billion RMB)

4.59

4.443

Value-added of secondary industry (billion RMB)

22.382

21.135

Value-added of tertiary industry (billion RMB)

19.98

20.521

Total retail sales of consumer goods (billion RMB)

21.9

22.416



Resources

Thirty-eight mineral deposits have been verified , including aluminium, zinc, silver, tungsten, tin, titanium and zircon. Plant resources include cereal and oil crops, cash crops, vegetables, medicinal herbs, fruits and wood.



Infrastructure

A great number of key infrastructure projects have been completed over the last two decades, including Guangzhou-Meizhou-Shantou Railway, Shenzhen-Shantou Expressway, Across-Bay Bridge, Queshi Bridge, the International Container Dock, a 500-kilovolt Power Transmission and Transformation Project, the Eastern Guangdong Information Building and Shantou International Cable Landing Station. Shantou Harbour has grown into one of the twenty biggest hubs in the country. Modern transport links, power supply and advanced telecommunications are in place.



Foreign trade

In 2000, Shantou's foreign trade value totalled US$4.213 billion, down by 4.6 per cent from US$4.391 billion in 1999. Total export value was US$2.596 billion, a drop of 3.6 per cent from US$2.694 billion in 1999. The city's export value was equivalent to 44.87 per cent of Shantou's GDP of RMB47.79 billion (US$5.786 billion), contributing 2.82 per cent to the total export value of Guangdong Province. Of the city's total export earnings, US$1.866 billion came from general export, down by 1.4 per cent on the previous year; the remaining US$729 million came from the outbound processing trade, a drop of 8.5 per cent.

The city exported to 151 countries and regions in 2000 and the top five markets (see Table 7.46.2) took a dominant share of 77.2 per cent of the total export value.

Table 7.46.2: Top five export markets, Shantou City, 1995 and 2000

Country/region

Export value (US$ million)

% of export total

1995

Hong Kong

1,101.94

80.67

Japan

57.59

4.20

Singapore

41.89

3.10

USA

36.68

2.70

Malaysia

15.08

1.10

Total

1,253.18

91.77

2000

Hong Kong

1,345.96

51.8

USA

304.68

11.7

Japan

196.48

7.6

Singapore

89.79

3.5

Panama

66.73

2.6

Total

2,003.64

77.2

Import value totalled US$1.617 billion in 2000, 4.7 per cent less than US$1.697 billion in 1999. Electromechanical products; plastics, industrial chemical products and petroleum gas were the key imports, each having a total import value over US$100 million. Imports came from 72 countries and regions and the top five markets combined (see Table 7.46.3) had a 60.78 per cent share of the city's total import value. Australia was the largest supplier of the city's imports, with Malaysia second.

Table 7.46.3: Top five import markets, Shantou City, 1995 and 2000

Country/region

Import value (US$ million)

% of import total

1995

Republic of Korea

415.08

18.49

Japan

305.96

13.63

Hong Kong

285.51

12.72

Taiwan Province

236.80

0.55

Russia

201.29

8.97

Total

1,444.64

64.36

2000

Australia

177.15

22.45

Malaysia

38.48

17.55

Papua New Guinea

76.95

9.75

USA

43.52

5.52

Republic of Yemen

43.48

5.51

Total

479.58

60.78