Dandong Border Economic Cooperation Zone

Dandong Border Economic Cooperation Zone was approved by the State Council in 1992 and Dandong Lingang Industrial Park was approved by the provincial government of Liaoning and incorporated into the province’s coastal economic belt development strategy in 2006.

In 2007, the administrative committees of the zone and the Lingang Industrial Park were combined. The Lingang Industrial Park was renamed Dandong New Area in 2013.

At present, the zone and the new area’s administrative committees, both agencies of the municipal government of Dandong, have the same staff members who divide their duties.

Located in the southeast part of Dandong city, the zone covers an area of 1.27 million sq km and has a population of 100,000.

The budgetary revenue of the zone in 2016 was 920 million yuan ($135.69 million), up 2.9 percent year-on-year; the fixed asset investment was 5.93 billion yuan, down 18.8 percent, and the export volume reached $983 million, an increase of 10.2 percent.

The zone has been focusing on the key industries like automobiles and parts and instruments and apparatuses, and has set up a group of industrial parks, including the east area of Lingang Industrial Zone, the Instrument and Apparatus Industrial Zone, Jiangwan Industrial Zone and the Watch Industrial Zone.

In 2016, industrial enterprises above the designated size numbered 39 and the added value of industries above the designated size reached 2.12 billion yuan, a cumulative growth rate of 5.2 percent. Import and export with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) through the port of Dandong has accounted for more than 60 percent of China’s trade with the country since border trade was resumed in September 1981.