The Lishui Economic and Technological Development Zone recorded a robust growth in the first half of the year – with GDP leaping 21.2 percent year-on-year, in a performance which was 8.5 percentage points higher than that of the country, the local media reported recently.

From January to June, the main economic indicators of the development zone – located in Lishui city in East China's Zhejiang province – were at the forefront of the region.

The added value of its service industry grew by 27.6 percent on the previous corresponding period,  fixed asset investment gained 22.4 percent year-on-year, while industrial investment surged by 57.3 percent, the total output value of the construction industry leaped by 133.6 percent and the sales volume of the wholesale industry advanced by a remarkable 249.5 percent.

It is understood these figures all ranked first in Lishui among all the areas under its administration.

The development zone has been focusing on introducing and expanding its strategic emerging sectors,  such as semiconductors and the digital economy.

In the first half, 19 new construction enterprises were welcomed to the zone. A future building headquarters park was successfully opened and the first of 14 leading companies and research institutes – including China Architecture Design & Research Group, China Construction Fourth Engineering Division Corp Ltd and Baoye Group – have settled in the park.

To top it off, during the six months, the environmentally friendly synthetic leather industry in the zone was successively evaluated as a provincial new intelligent manufacturing industry cluster and a pilot project to establish an industrial brain for its sector in Zhejiang.