Li Qihong, Mayor of Zhongshan and deputy secretary of the municipal Party committee, who is in Beijing for NPC and CPPCC, met leaders of China Railway Group Ltd., including Duan Xiubin, vice-president of this group, to discuss the mutual cooperation between Zhongshan and the group yesterday afternoon.

Outline of the Pearl River Delta Regional Plan on Reformation and Development launched last year which specified that Zhongshan should focus on the development of offshore equipment manufacturing, industry of fine chemicals and health industry base. This would attract central enterprises, state-owned enterprises and other large businesses, bringing about enormous commercial opportunities for Zhongshan. At the beginning of 2009, with the cooperation of Zhongshan city and China Railway, China Major Bridge Engineering Co.,Ltd successfully settled down in Linhai Industrial Park of Torch Hi-tech Development Zone. Covering an area of more than 360 mu and with an initial investment of 1 billion yuan, China Major Bridge Engineering Co.,Ltd was finished within one year and was put into operation last October. This company produces and sells concrete box griders, precast concrete parts, and steel structure. The box girder made for the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Yanjiang Expressway weighs 2400 tons, measures 60 meters long and 20 meters wide and is capable of a four-lane double way. At present, it is the heaviest box girder in China and even the world, and called the king of girders, as a single box girder costs more than 2.2 million yuan.

“With our pleasant cooperation, we will have an even brighter future for cooperation.” Duan Xiubin said, Zhongshan is notably worth investing, and China Railway intends to make Zhongshan the eternal manufacturing base of bridges.

Li Qihong told Duan that China Railway will not only play an important part in the construction of the Hong Kong – Zhuhai – Macao Bridge, but it will also play an key part in the building of Shenzhen-Zhongshan Road with its “king” of girders. She pointed out that in the past domestic-oriented and foreign-oriented economy constituted the Zhongshan economy, and now in addition to foreign companies and private-owned companies, central enterprises and SOEs developed very fast, contributing to industrial restructuring and transformation in Zhongshan.