Located in the north of Ningbo, and sitting at the prime location between Shanghai, Hangzhou and Ningbo, the Qianwan New Area is an indispensible part of the construction of a world-class bay area by Zhejiang Province, as well as a strategic platform for the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta area.
As the landmark and strategic reform and opening up platform of the “four major construction projects” of the province (the great bay area, the great garden, the great passage and the metropolitan area), the Qianwan New Area was approved and established by the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province on July 9, 2019. It is one of the first group of “six new areas” approved. Included in the cultivation list for the first group of high-level strategic platforms, it is the only new area entrusted with the mission to participated on behalf of Zhejiang Province in the construction of the Shanghai-Zhejiang High-level Cooperation Demonstration Zone, It is clearly positioned as the Shanghai-Zhejiang Cooperation Development Zone in the “Outline of the Integrated Regional Development Plan for Yangtze River Delta Area”.
The spatial plan of Qianwan New Area of Ningbo (2019-2035) was released in November 2020. In March 2021, the General Office of Ningbo Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal People’s Government issued the “implementation opinions on vigorously promoting the high-quality development of Qianwan New Area”. On December 29, 2021, Ningbo Qianwan New Area was inaugurated, marking the departure of the new area from the “bridge era” to the “great bay era” of the Yangtze River Delta area.
The planned area of the new area is 604 square kilometers, with a current permanent population of 550,000 people. To build a “world-class advanced manufacturing base, Shanghai-Zhejiang high-level cooperative development zone, a future town of integrated development of industry and city, and a landmark strategic platform for integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta area”, Ningbo Qianwan New Area adheres to the characteristics of the bay area, ecological priority, and the integration of production, living and ecology, promotes the construction of the beautiful new area, and strives to build an ecological pattern of “one core, two belts, and multiple corridors”, and an overall urban spatial structure of “two cores, two zones, and multiple clusters”, in hope of becoming a benchmark for the construction of great bay area in Zhejiang Province.
The natural ecological space network of “one core, two belts, and multiple corridors” refers to strictly protecting the natural ecological environment based on the blue-green grid, and building a network with the green center of the Hangzhou Bay Wetland as the core, the two important ecological belts, namely the northern coastal ecological belt and the central rural pastoral belt, and several multi-functional ecological corridors.
As for the overall urban spatial structure, the “two cores” refer to the coastal innovative development core and the southern industrial and urban service core; the “two zones” refer to the advanced intelligent manufacturing zone in the east and the emerging industrial zone in the west; and the “multiple clusters” refer to the several organic clusters composed of the functional units built in accordance with the concept of integration of ecology, production and living.
The “1341” industrial system will be built in the new area. To be specific, the first “1” refers to the auto industry, the “one” characteristic leading industry in the area; “3” refers to three emerging pillar industries, including the high-end equipment industry, the electronic information industry and the new materials industry; “4” refers to the four regional advantageous industries, including the smart home appliances, key infrastructure, biological medicine, and energy conservation and environmental protection; the second “1” refers to “one group of service industries”, including R&D and design, education and training, and services for automatic integration.
As an important window of the internal-external circulation of the integration of the Yangtze River Delta area, the Qianwan New Area consists of such national key platforms as Ningbo Hangzhou Bay Economic and Technological Development Zone, Sino-Italian (Ningbo) Ecological Park, Ningbo Qianwan Comprehensive Bonded Zone.
Ningbo Hangzhou Bay Economic and Technological Development Zone
Upgraded as a national economic and technological development zone in February 2014, it is a state-level demonstration zone for industry-city integration. It has attracted the settlement of a number of high-quality leading enterprises including SAIC Volkswagen, Geely, Fotile and Ningbo Cixing, and a number of functional platforms including the Geely Research Institute and the Ningbo Institute of Fudan University.
Sino-Italian (Ningbo) Ecological Park
It is an eco-industrial park for international cooperation with integration of industry and living jointly built by the Chinese and Italian governments, as well as a core block of the demonstration zone for China-EU economic and trade cooperation.
Ningbo Qianwan Comprehensive Bonded Zone
Ningbo Qianwan Comprehensive Bonded Zone passed the inspection and acceptance of the General Administration of Customs in April 2021, with a closed area of 0.71 square kilometers. Currently, it has formed the business pattern led by the “bonded import of cross-border e-commerce” and supplemented by bonded warehousing, export consolidation, and import distribution.
According to “implementation opinions on the high-quality development of Ningbo Qianwan New Area”, by 2025, the gross regional product of the new area will exceed 150 billion yuan. The added value of high-tech industries will account for over 70% of that of the above-scale industries, the added value of the core industries of the digital economy will increase by 14%, and the R&D investment will account for over 5% of the total, providing strong support for building a pilot city for socialist modernization.
