Reporters take a look at the sand table of Xuwei New Area on May 22, 2012.[Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

A special area in Lianyungang city of Jiangsu province aims to play an exemplary role in the province's coastal development, setting far-reaching goals in fields including regional coordination, circular economy and industrial base construction.

Xuwei New Area, covering an area of 467 kilometers, plans to make full use of Lianyungang's geographical advantage and strategic position.

Lianyungang is the eastern terminal of Longhai Railway, and boasts well-established ports, facing South Korea and Japan across the sea. It has been approved by the State Council in May 2011 as the demonstration area of East/Middle/West/Inter-Regional Cooperation.

Xuwei hopes to be a portal for the opening up of China's middle and western regions, and build itself into a model base for industrial cooperation for the east, middle and west regions. It also wants to experiment new cooperation mechanisms for these regions.

In harboring its leading industries, the area will set eyes on five major industries: petrochemical industry, port logistics, manufacturing industry, metal smelting and processing industry, and clean energy industry.

As much as five key projects are under construction at present and the total investment nears 60 billion yuan ($9.51 billion). Xuwei is actively seeking investment to further support these industries.

It is estimated that by the year 2015, Xuwei New Area will take shape to become a new industrial base in Jiangsu's coastal area and be a driving force for the province's coastal development.