Editor’s note: In 2014, Nantong, Jiangsu province, made noticeable social and economic progress. The Nantong Report will introduce those achievements and update the changes regularly. In this edition, we look at the city’s efforts in reform and opening-up.

? The output value of Nantong’s construction industry topped 500 billion yuan ($80 billion) in 2014, accounting for 20 percent of the province’s total. The city had 18 companies in the “Top 100” lists for competitiveness and growth of construction enterprises released by the China Construction Industry Association in August. That was the most in the ranking of all prefecture-level cities in China.

Twenty enterprises based in Nantong were among the top 100 construction companies in Jiangsu province.

The website of the Engineering News-Record in the United States ranked four Nantong contractors on its 2014 list of the world’s top 250 international contractors.

? In August 2014, Nantong held an international talent and entrepreneurship contest, the first of its kind in the city.

The contest attracted nearly 1,000 participants and 300 business teams from both China and abroad. Nantong plans to put 10 award-winning programs from the contest into operation.

So far, the city has also hired 107 experts who were members of the national Recruitment Program of Global Experts, or the 1,000 Talent Plan, launched by the Chinese government to attract talented researchers from around the world to enhance the country’s academic level.

The city also recruited 171 experts who were included in the province’s innovation and entrepreneur talent program and another 133 who were included in the province’s plan to bring in professionals with doctorate degrees.

? A guideline released by the State Council in September supports joint development of ocean and river resources in the Tongzhou Bay area of Nantong. The policy is expected to play an important role in enhancing development and construction of the area.

? In October, COSCO (Nantong) Shipyard joined the ranks of the Chinese Patent Gold Award winners, the highest honor for patents in the country, which is co-granted annually by the Chinese government and the World Intellectual Property Organization. The company was the first in Nantong to win the prize.

The city’s high-tech industry generated about 545 billion yuan ($87 billion) in output value last year, accounting for 43 percent of the city’s total industrial output.

In addition to five national-level research institutes and 271 provincial-level institutes, Nantong is home to 390 high-tech enterprises, two national pilot enterprises of innovation, and three national-level and 114 provincial-level corporate technology centers.

Nantong ranked fifth among the top 25 Chinese cities in terms of innovation ability, according to a list released by Forbes China in December.

? In a memorandum of understanding signed during Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to Italy in mid-October, the governments of the two countries encouraged enterprises and organizations from both to work together to establish an eco-industrial park in the Hai’an Economic and Technological Development Zone in Nantong.

The Hai’an Eco-industrial Park would provide Nantong with a platform for international cooperation while the city seeks future development.

Meanwhile, the China-Austrian Incubator for Science and Technology Enterprises officially opened in Nantong last year.

? On his inspection of Nantong in November, Jiangsu Governor Li Xueyong praised the city’s achievements in integrated development of its marine, land and river resources, industrial restructuring and upgrading, urban construction and social development.

In 2014, Nantong’s growth in major economic indexes was higher than the province’s average, with GDP 1.8 percentage points higher than the average, 14.1 percentage points higher in actual foreign investment, and 5 percentage points higher in foreign trade.

Nantong ranked third in the province in terms of industrial investment, with 56.5 percent of the total investment going to technological upgrading.

Investment in the service industry grew 26.4 percent year-on-year and made up 46.7 percent of the city’s fixed asset investment — a record high in the city’s history.

Nantong’s service outsourcing contract value increased by 46.8 percent and the execution amount grew by 54.7 percent from a year earlier.

Contact the writer at zhuanti @chinadaily.com.cn