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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 GUANGZHOU 005955 
 
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TAGS: ENRG ECON ETRD EINV EAGR CH
SUBJECT: Journey to the West: Guangdong's Maoming City 
Focuses Its Energy on Its Strengths 
 
REF:  Guangzhou 5870 and previous 
 
(U) THIS DOCUMENT IS SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED.  PLEASE 
PROTECT ACCORDINGLY.  NOT FOR RELEASE OUTSIDE U.S. 
GOVERNMENT CHANNELS.  NOT FOR INTERNET PUBLICATION. 
 
¶1.  (U) Summary: In contrast to the "pie in the sky" 
wishful thinking we heard throughout our tour of Guangxi's 
top cities, officials in Guangdong's Maoming City 
professionally presented credible plans for further 
economic development based on heavy industry with some 
agriculture thrown in.  City officials have confidence that 
they will be successful in building Maoming into China's 
largest petrochemical industrial base with a developed 
infrastructure, strong traditional industrial base, and 
educated and skilled human resources.  In addition to a 
solid heavy industrial base, Maoming also is making strides 
to lead Guangdong Province in its development of 
agriculture.  End Summary. 
 
What a Difference a Border Makes 
-------------------------------- 
¶2.  (U) There can be too much of a good thing. 
Environmentally, Guangxi is very nice, but its 
comparatively pristine qualities are part and parcel of its 
economic backwardness.  As the Consulate party headed home 
to Guangzhou from its "journey to the west" trip to key 
cities in Guangxi (reftel), we rest-stopped mid-way for a 
meeting where we could once again take in the not so 
pristine atmosphere of massive industrial development.  In 
a highly professional Powerpoint presentation, Maoming 
Development and Reform Commission (DRC) officials clearly 
laid out the city's record and prospects.  Maoming is a 
petrochemical-focused industrial city locating in Western 
Guangdong.  It has an area of 11,500 square kilometers and 
a coastal line of 222 kilometers.  It has three county- 
level cities, one county (rural) and two urban districts. 
Maoming has Guangdong's third largest population of 6.7 
million people.  Maoming's economic development levels put 
it in the mid-ranks within the Province.  In 2004, though 
Maoming's GDP was RMB 75.034 billion, ranking the 6th 
biggest in Guangdong, its GDP per capita ranking was only 
12th at RMB 11,210, and its public revenues RMB 1.776 
billion, ranking 11th.  In 2005, Maoming's GDP was 
estimated to be RMB 80 billion, about 2.8 times of that of 
¶2000.  For the 11th Five-Year Planning Period, Maoming has 
set a goal to reach an average annual GDP growth of 12%, 
and GDP per capita growth of 11%.  Officials also want to 
lower the energy consumption for each unit of GDP produced 
by 15% compared with that of the 10th Five-Year Planning 
Period, and keep the urban unemployment rate below 4%. 
 
¶3.  (U) The petrochemical industry is the main pillar of 
the City's economy.  Maoming also has very strong 
agriculture and leads the Province in agriculture sales by 
value.  The Government has a very ambitious goal to become 
China's largest petrochemical city, and it also plans to 
use its harbor resources to develop a heavy industrial zone 
featuring petrochemical and steel ore refining. 
 
Well-Positioned in Terms of Transportation 
------------------------------------------ 
¶4.  (U) The DRC Officials said Maoming is positioned to be 
a transportation hub in Western Guangdong.  It currently 
has a railway connecting the City to Guangzhou and the 
Provincial Government is building an extra line along the 
current route to expand its capacity.  Another railway 
project under construction will connect Maoming with 
Guangxi's Cenxi City and extend all the way to Henan 
Province's Luoyang City.  The Central Government's long- 
term planning includes a railway that starts from Shanghai 
and goes along the coastal area to Shenzhen, and goes 
southwest to Maoming and ends in Zhanjiang.  In addition to 
rail expansion, two expressways are now under construction 
that will extend north to connect Maoming with Wuzhou City 
in Guangxi, and northeast to connect with Guangdong's 
Yangchun and Zhaoqing cities. 
 
Economic Pillar: Petrochemical Industry 
--------------------------------------- 
 
GUANGZHOU 00005955  002 OF 004 
 
 
¶5.  (U) As noted above, the City's economy relies 
predominantly on the petrochemical industry.  Maoming has a 
petroleum refinery that has China's second largest capacity 
of more than 13.5 million tons annually.  It is undergoing 
an expansion that will increase the capacity to 16 million 
tons.  The refinery's ultimate goal is 30 million tons. 
Its ethylene manufacturing capacity will also increase from 
the current 380,000 tons to one million tons, while its 
ultimate target is two million tons.  In 2004, the refinery 
refined 13.23 million tons of crude oil, produced 1.85 
million tons of gasoline, and 365,000 tons of lubricant. 
The refinery attracts over 600 downstream enterprises to 
locate at the City.  Out of these enterprises, 160 are 
large scale enterprises, and one of them ranks among 
China's Top 100 petrochemical enterprises.  According to 
local government officials, the refinery alone contributed 
to about one-third of the salaries for local public 
servants. 
 
¶6.  (U) The Central Government decided to build a refinery 
in Maoming in the 1950s, when China discovered some limited 
oil resources and Maoming happened to have rich oil rock 
deposits totalling 5.1 billion tons.  However, Maoming's 
rock was too costly to refine oil.  As crude oil prices 
have been going up in international markets in recent 
years, the refinery is thinking of using new machinery to 
utilize the oil rock resources.  Now the refinery's crude 
oil is shipped in by tankers.  The refinery is responsible 
for supplying the Southwestern China area and the Pearl 
River Delta.  Maoming used to ship its refined gasoline to 
those areas by road and railway.  Now it is using pipelines 
connecting Maoming to Kunming in Yunnan Province and 
Guiyang in Guizhou Province.  Maoming is also building 
pipelines to Guangzhou and Shenzhen in the Pearl River 
Delta (PRD). 
 
Agriculture and other industries 
-------------------------------- 
¶7.  (U) Maoming has very significant agricultural output 
that has ranked at the top in Guangdong for many years. 
Officials are proud of several famous brand names of high 
quality lychee, longgan, chicken eggs and duck eggs.  These 
products have won awards in domestic agricultural contests. 
In recent years, Maoming's fruit tree growing area has been 
expanded from 1.98 million mu (15 mu are equal to one 
hectare) to over 4 million mu.  Due to its sub-tropical 
location, Maoming's fruit ripening season is about one 
month earlier than many other cities in China.  Its fruits 
have also received provincial certificates as "A-level 
Green Food" and "Originating Place" (thus providing a 
geographical "brand" to the produce).  In 2003, Maoming's 
lychee and longgan passed sanitary and phyto-sanitary tests 
for the U.S. and Australia markets, and producers began 
exporting to those markets. 
 
¶8.  (U) In addition to petrochemical industries and 
agriculture, Maoming also has other primary processing 
industries making bamboo products, dried or canned fruits, 
aquaculture products, fish, leather gloves, and furniture. 
After the Pan Pearl River Delta program was initiated in 
June 2004, Maoming has received more visitors from the 
region interested in investing there, and there is greater 
coordination in infrastructure development between 
different cities in Pan-PRD area.  Compared with the Pearl 
River Delta, Maoming has more available land, and it is 
located in western Guangdong connecting the Province with 
Southwestern and Western China and ASEAN.  Officials said 
the City was a good choice for investments whose market is 
Southwest China and ASEAN countries. 
 
A Harbor-Based Heavy Industrial Zone 
------------------------------------ 
¶9.  (U) The Maoming DRC is also planning to develop a heavy 
industrial zone in the city's harbor area based on its 
advantages of port potential, environment capacity, a large 
supply of land, and a trained work force and managerial 
abilities.  Currently, Maoming has three ports, one is for 
shipping crude oil and oil products and can accommodate 
vessels of 30,000-tons; one is for fishing boats; and the 
third is a new port.  The new port is located in a harbor 
 
GUANGZHOU 00005955  003.2 OF 004 
 
 
with a water depth that has the potential for four berths 
that can receive vessels of 300,000-tons, four to six 
berths of 200,000-tons, and six to eight berths of 100,000- 
tons.  The harbors are not located on river deltas and 
consequently have no silt concerns.  Locating by a harbor 
area can also have benefit environmentally through the fast 
recycling of air and water, and is thus suitable for heavy 
industry.  Near the harbor area, there is also a land 
reserve of 30 square kilometers that is suitable for large 
industrial enterprises and logistics companies. 
 
¶10.  (U) Maoming City is now working on infrastructure 
preparation for the industrial zone.  Officials are 
planning to build a highway, a railway line, and two water- 
supply channels to the zone.  The City will also build a 
power plant with an ultimate capacity of eight million 
kilowatt hours at the site.  The Provincial Government has 
already approved an initial project of two million kilowatt 
hours.  The Government is also learning from Shanghai how 
to build a centralized treatment plant to process 
wastewater from the industrial enterprises in the zone. 
The processed wastewater will then be discharged to into a 
deep ocean water area. 
 
Lots of Human Resources 
----------------------- 
¶11.  (U) The DRC officials said their 50 years of 
petrochemical development also has provided the City with a 
lot of experienced personnel for heavy industry.  Maoming 
now already has about 10,000 managerial personnel and 
300,000 workers working in the petrochemical industry.  The 
City also has a technology college that grants bachelor 
degrees and there are several occupational schools. 
Officials say the Maoming's well-developed infrastructure 
and talent condition makes it an ideal cost-effective place 
to develop heavy industries.  Officials have strong 
confidence that Maoming will become China's largest 
petrochemical city in the future.  Maoming's oil refinery's 
expansion project is almost sure to locate in the harbor 
industrial zone.  Officials said there was no problem for 
the refinery's crude oil capacity to be further increased 
to 20 million tons, and it is just a matter of time to 
reach its ultimate goal of 30 millions.  However, it will 
take a while for the City to initiate a steel project since 
Beijing increased the entry threshold for this industry due 
to concerns with oversupply and economic overheating in the 
sector.  Officials put their hope of starting their steel 
project on Beijing's eventual loosening of restrictions in 
the future. 
 
¶12.  (U) With its convenient transportation network, 
Maoming's new industrial zone would strongly support a 
logistic industry that could "hijack" the cargo now flowing 
to Zhanjiang, one of the biggest bulk cargo ports in South 
China.  Once Maoming's port is operational, use of its 
facilities would save one hundred kilometers of travel for 
cargo from central and Southwest China. 
 
Comment 
------- 
¶13.  (SBU) Maoming has clearly chosen heavy industry for 
its future.  The City obviously has strong advantages and 
potential in this sector.  Full utilization of these 
conditions will guarantee continuous economic growth for 
the City.  Despite its focus on heavy industry development, 
Maoming has also impressively developed its agriculture 
while maintaining its environment.  This flexibility gives 
Maoming an advantage that its officials do not feel has 
been well exploited.   If the Maoming Government can 
attract more labor-intensive investment to provide more 
jobs to local people, it will be in a strong position to 
continue its economic development without disruption. 
 
¶14.  (SBU) Maoming provides a good perspective for us to 
reflect on Guangxi as our "journey to the west" came to an 
end.  Despite being a mid-tiered and relatively obscure 
city in Guangdong, Maoming is way ahead of its counterparts 
in Guangxi in terms of economic achievement and clear 
thinking about exploiting advantages.  The "be everything 
to everybody" approach that we found all too prevalent in 
 
GUANGZHOU 00005955  004.2 OF 004 
 
 
Guangxi is not at all prevalent in Guangdong, where 
municipalities know their capabilities and "industrial 
identities."  That may be an important reason why Guangdong 
is the richest province in China and Guangxi languishes in 
18th or 19th place. 
 
¶15.  (U) The date of transmission of this message is also 
the first day in the Consulate's "short march" to the 
eastern Guangdong cities of Shantou, Jieyang, and Chaozhou, 
and reports on that trip should be forthcoming some time 
after that trip is finished. 
 
DONG