QIANHAI in Nanshan District has been positioned as a strategic center for the city's future development, according to the 10-year plan (2010-2020) approved by the State Council, a conference was told yesterday.

It is the first time Qianhai has been officially recognized as a municipal-level business center, together with the existing centers of Luohu and Futian districts, according to the city's urban planning authority.

The plan also for the first time set Shenzhen as a national economic center, rather than a regional center of South China.

Qianhai will enjoy preferential government policies and is intended to become a center for "high-end" services, innovative and logistics industries.

Xu Chongguang, vice director of Shenzhen Urban Planning and Land Resources Commission, said: "The 10-year plan symbolizes the city transforming to a technology-driven economy as well as curbing the kind of growth purely brought about by urban expansion."

"Qianhai, the highlight of the plan, will be an experiment for sustainable development," he said.

"Qianhai is located at the heart of a development axis that runs from Guangzhou to Shenzhen and to Hong Kong."

"Along this axis, a number of infrastructure projects including railways, expressways and communications are under construction," Xu said.

Xu added that ecological development and regional cooperation would be focus points of the new plan.

Source:Shenzhen Daily