SOUTHEAST China's Xiamen has started construction on its Southeast China International Shipping Centre project, building 18 main facilities with at a cost CNY16.73 billion (US$2.63 billion), reports Xinhua.

The project is part of Xiamen's new infrastructure facilities aimed at boosting the city's tourism and shipping industries, local officials said.

The Southeast China International Shipping Centre package project contains will include a 100,000-tonne luxury cruise liner, the first of its kind in China, a cruise terminal, a shipping business centre, and a pelagic automated container terminal and so on.

The facilities, all located in the Haicang district of Xiamen city near the Taiwan Strait, are key to further developing the city as a future shipping hub in south east China, and they are expected to drive the economic growth of the region, said Kang Tao, deputy mayor of Xiamen.

The project's goal is to increase the shipping and tourism sectors of the city of Xiamen, where the port is currently used to handle manufactured goods for export.

Details of the cruise projects were not publicised, but local media had previously reported that the cruise liner, with its estimated cost of CNY3.1 billion, would not likely undergo sea trials until 2018.

"The cruise industry gives Xiamen's struggling shipbuilders a good chance to move up the industry value chain by focusing on building luxury cruise ships," said Chen Yumin, an official with Xiamen Shipbuilding Industry.

The cruise industry is believed to be part of Xiamen's economic structural reform to shift focus to domestic consumption, particularly from the booming middle class to spur economic growth.

Xiamen was well known for its concentration of export-oriented factories until the boom of its tourism in recent years, leading the city to becoming one of China's top leisure centres.