When Jean-Jacques Verdun arrived in Zhuhai 14 years ago, the Frenchmen's first impression was that this small coastal city in Guangdong province was missing out on the manic level of development gripping China.

It was 2001, and across the nation many cities and regions were churning out cheap products from cheap factories, riding high on a low-end manufacturing boom that seemed without end. But Zhuhai was different, spurning quick profit and breakneck development for steady growth.

"At the time we thought, 'Are you sure?' All these factories are going elsewhere," Verdun said.

Then the boom ended. Some other cities in Guangdong suddenly found a hard economic transition ahead. Yet in Zhuhai, a former fishing village that became a city in 1979 before the Chinese government designated it a special economic zone, things were different.

"Zhuhai has never aimed at attracting low-end manufacturing," Verdun said. "They were already high-end (manufacturing in 2001)."

Verdun, the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry representative in Zhuhai, said it is a long-term strategy that is starting to pay off for the city of 1.6 million.

The city, which is not particularly well-known outside of China — largely because in the past it has been overshadowed by its neighbors, Macao, Hong Kong and Shenzhen — popped onto the radar late last month when engineering and construction giant Fluor Corp. joined a group of big-name companies that collectively invested 35.46 billion yuan ($5.54 billion) in 28 new projects destined for the city.

Announced in August during Zhuhai’s inaugural Advanced Equipment Manufacturing Investment and Trade Symposium for the western Pearl River region, the staggering level of investment from multinational and Chinese firms is the latest economic coup notched by the coastal metropolis, which has continued to defy the slowdown in China, with forecasts predicting it will this year equal or surpass its 2014 GDP growth of 10.3 percent.

Zhuhai's lower costs, strategic location — the city is about an hour by rail from Guangzhou, the provincial capital, and will soon be directly linked with Hong Kong and Macao by a 55-km long bridge — and ready access to some of China and Southeast Asia’s biggest markets saw foreign investment hit $1.93 billion last year.

"It's a bit of a hidden gem," said Verdun.

He Zhiyun, deputy general manager of Panyu Chu Kong Steel Pipe Corp. (PCK), is of the same mind. She said her company, a market leader in producing steel pylons for bridges and offshore resource projects, set up shop in Zhuhai about five years ago because of the city’s strategic location near the South China Sea and Southeast Asian markets, as well as the excellent investment environment fostered by the city government.

About 50,000 metric tons of the company's annual 600,000 metric ton production is now made at its Zhuahai plant and brought in about 800 million yuan last year.

"The Zhuhai government offered us preferential policies," He said. "We pay 10 percent tax instead of the general rate of 25 percent. We got a special deal on the land, and they also set up a public bus service for our 700 employees.

"Everyone in the company believes the decision to invest here was a good one."

Zhuhai's strongest selling points for PCK — a good industrial supply chain and well-developed infrastructure — was also what attracted Sunbird, the market-leading Chinese yacht builder, to develop a business there with registered capital of more than 420 million yuan.

In his office not far from Sunbird’s bustling shipyard, David Luo, CEO of marine engineering joint venture Wartsila-Yuchai Engine Corp., said the fact that Zhuhai hadn't ravaged the local environment during its development drive had been a big attraction for his European parent company.

He said the company decided to invest in Zhuhai in 2013 because of the city's well-developed infrastructure, its strategic location that brought access to Macao and Hong Kong at a fraction of the cost, and an excellent investment environment. He said the city government had also begun assessing the option of introducing university training courses to meet Wartsila-Yuchai’s growing need for highly skilled workers.

"We believe the government policy and initiatives here will benefit us and help us grow our customer base," Luo said.

Marine-related industries aside, Zhuhai already boasts investment from 42 of the world's top 500 companies, as well as some of China's biggest brands, including the world's largest air-conditioning manufacturer, Gree.

Gao Zhongde, general manager of CRRC Equipment Engineering Corp., CRRC's base in the city, said the Zhuhai government's plan to transform and grow the local manufacturing, high-tech and service industries had created a framework that had helped his company's 1 billion yuan investment in Zhuhai pay dividends.

Bolstered by government concessions such as tax breaks, land deals and research and development support, the high-end manufacturing sector accounted for 47.3 percent of Zhuhai's industrial value added last year, with the high-tech industry accounting for a further 25.9 percent.

A partnership between the Zhuhai government and China's top college, Tsinghua University, saw the creation of the Tsinghua Science Park 13 years ago. The park, which offers rent-free space, resources, access to Tsinghua University's R&D facilities and the possibility of private equity funding, has helped to incubate 400 startup companies, including five that now have annual revenues of more than 500 million yuan.

Focusing largely on new-energy projects, drone technology, and high-tech medical equipment manufacturing, the park has produced successful businesses such as medical supply company Scanmed, which has just received approval to begin exporting cutting-edge keyhole surgical equipment to Australia, Brazil and India.

With 450 million yuan in private equity funds at the park's disposal, and expansion plans afoot, deputy general manager He Jie said the park is now throwing open its doors to foreign entrepreneurs and businesses.

"Anything you want, we have it," he said. "Money, talent, R&D resources from the best university in China, and a base close to Macao, Hong Kong and Shenzhen as well as the (Hengqin) free trade zone. We've got it all."

Speaking at the investment and trade symposium in August, which showcased 200 Chinese and international companies, Zhuhai Mayor Jiang Ling said the 28 new projects will "inject new vigor into Zhuhai's economic development, and help Zhuhai to fortify its position as a leader in advanced equipment manufacturing."

Gerald Stone, senior vice president of Fluor’s energy and chemicals division, said his company will shell out $490 million over the next two years for a 49-percent stake in a joint venture managing the Zhuhai fabrication yard of Offshore Oil Engineering (COOEC), a subsidiary of China National Offshore Oil Corp., the Chinese state-owned enterprise that holds a virtual monopoly over resource extraction in the nation’s territorial waters in the South China Sea.

He said the joint venture, COOEC-Fluor Heavy Industries, is part of Fluor’s strategy to break into potentially lucrative, emerging onshore and offshore markets close to Zhuhai in South China, and Southeast Asia.

When asked about the future of this city by the sea that, until recently, few people outside of China had heard about, Lin Jiang, dean and professor of public finance and taxation at Guangzhou’s Sun Yat-sen University, had this simple but telling assessment: "Its prospects are promising."