(Yicai Global) March 14 -- Large central enterprise China Communications Construction Co. (CCCC) plans to invest CNY10 billion (USD1.58 billion) to set up a new energy vehicle base in Bazhou in China's east-central Hebei province, whose provincial government has listed it as a key project for this year.

Wholly-owned CCCC subsidiary China Highway Vehicle & Machinery Co. signed an investment agreement with Bazhou's city government on March 12. It will be the first NEV project set up in the local automobile industrial park, online portal Hebei News reported yesterday.

The new base, which will cover an area of about 1.75 square kilometers, will go up in two phases. The first, which will conclude by the end of next year, will output 10,000 new energy passenger cars, and its total production will reach 20,000 after the completion of the second phase ends. Its annual manufacturing value will hit CNY35 billion thereafter.

The project will further integrate Bazhou into the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, while CCCC's new energy automobile base will attract more central enterprises to settle in this city lying in the heart of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, 80 kilometers from Beijing and 70 km from Tianjin. The region, China's newest special economic zone, is intended to relieve Beijing of many of its non-capital functions by shifting these to it.