(Yicai Global) Feb. 20 -- Wuxi, a city in China's eastern Jiangsu province near Shanghai, started its first batch of major projects for this year yesterday.

The fast-growing lakeside city has inaugurated 301 major projects, including Korean LG Chem's car powertrain battery cathode materials project, the second phase of the optoelectronic semiconductor project of Germany's OSRAM Licht and a life science headquarters economic cluster project, with overall investment of CNY298 billion (USD44 billion), with CNY85 billion allotted for this year.

These schemes include 248 major industrial ventures with investment of CNY264 billion, 38 major livelihood projects whose cost will be CNY26 billion, five major ecology and environmental protection programs to the tune of CNY900 million (USD133 million), and 10 major innovation development institutions with investment of CNY6.8 billion, state media China News Service reported.

The outlay for 71 projects will top CNY1 billion a piece, while that for 49 will be between CNY500 million and CNY1 billion, per the report.

Seoul-based LG Chem is working with Zhejiang province-headquartered Huayou Cobalt, the world's largest cobalt refiner, on the cathode materials plant. Its first phase, which will cost USD1 billion, will have a planned output of 100,000 tons and sales of CNY20 billion. The two will finish and run trial production in December, and begin mass production and sales next year.

The city, whose population is almost 6.5 million, started 209 major projects in a batch the same time last year with an allocation of CNY314 billion, in annual disbursements of CNY90 billion.

Editor: Ben Armour