Shanghai's district inks projects worth $3.8b

Shanghai's Jiading district, an important manufacturing base, signed agreements on Sept 26 with domestic and international investors to launch industrial projects worth 24.3 billion yuan ($3.86 billion).

"It's part of the district's strategy to push forward its industrial restructuring process and reinforce its economic development," said Ma Chunlei, director of the Jiading district government.

Many projects are related to emerging industries and the automobile industry, which is Jiading's key manufacturing sector.

"We'll focus our energy on developing the automobile industry in the next several years," Ma said.

The auto industry -- considered one of the district's economic backbones -- accounts for about 44 percent of the district's GDP. It created an output value of 240 billion yuan last year, and it's expected to reach 300 billion yuan by 2015, Ma said.

Ma said that Jiading injected 24.2 billion yuan into projects between January and August of this year to stimulate its economic growth, adding that the total investment is expected to reach 30 billion yuan by the end of the year.