An amazing history of special and economic zones has been put online.

1978. The Chinese government embarked on a policy of opening to the outside world in a planned way.
1980, China started establishing special economic zones in Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shantou in Guangdong Province and Xiamen in Fujian Province, and designated the entire province of Hainan a special economic zone.
1984, China further opened 14 coastal cities — Dalian, Qinhuangdao, Tianjin, Yantai, Qingdao, Lianyungang, Nantong, Shanghai, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Zhanjiang and Beihai — to overseas investment.
1985, the state decided to expand the open coastal areas, extending the open economic zones of the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Xiamen-Zhangzhou-Quanzhou Triangle in south Fujian, Shandong Peninsula, Liaodong Peninsula, Hebei and Guangxi into an open coastal belt.
1990, the Chinese government decided to open the Pudong New Zone in Shanghai to overseas investment, and opened more cities in the Yangtze River valley. In this way, a chain of open cities extending up the Yangtze River valley, with Shanghai’s Pudong as the “dragon head,” has been formed.
1992. Since this date the State Council has opened a number of border cities, and in addition, opened all the capital cities of inland provinces and autonomous regions. In addition, 15 free trade zones, 32 state-level economic and technological development zones, and 53 new- and high-tech industrial development zones have been established in large and medium-sized cities.

More. much more, by clicking on Source.
Source: China in Brief

Tianjin has historically been a very industrial city building on its advantage of also being a port.

Tianjin has been able to leverage the foreign direct investment brought through TEDA (Tianjin Economic Development Area which is, in fact, five separate zones working as one) to develop the city.

There are now over 18,000 foreign invested companies within Tianjin. Tianjin is one of China’s strongest second tier cities, and being within an hour and a half of Beijing (soon to be 27 minutes by bullet train), it is becoming more and more attractive to firms who are looking to move out of Beijing for lower costs of production.

Now the economic development zone is getting towards saturation (and the traffic in Tianjin is horrendous) the new developments are happening in the new Binhai area. This has a planned area of 2,270 km², a coastline of 153 km and a resident population of 1.4 million, Tianjin New Coastal District lies in the center of the Circum-Bohai Region and the eastern seaboard of Tianjin.

Tianjin shows how the future of a economic development zone can be supported by the government with educational institutions: there are now 37 institutions of higher learning at all levels, 159 academy of sciences and research institutes, 7 key state-level labs, 10 key ministry-level labs, 10 state-level research centers for engineering technology, 27 state-level and ministry-level testing centers, and there were over 80,000 college graduates last year and an additional 30,000 graduates of other technical schools.
Sources: All Roads Lead to China

The past 30 years of China’s reforms and opening up that began in 1978 stoked the economies in a number of the nation’s coastal regions, including Guangdong, Zhejiang and Shanghai.

But as costs of land and labor rise — and electricity supplies fall short of demand — those economic heavyweights are giving way to once-obscure inland provinces in central China that are springing up as the next destination of investment.

Anhui, traditionally an agricultural province in China’s central region, is among the new trendsetters. And where the new companies settle so Economic Zones tend to be set up.

In the first three quarters of 2007, six central provinces, including Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi and Shanxi attracted $11.5 billion in foreign investment, a 46.2% increase over the same period the year previous and 24.3% of the national total.

Anhui ranked first in annual growth at 190%, 178% higher than the national average, and fifth place among the six by capital volume of $1.94 billion.

The province has attracted investment from both home and abroad, including big international names like ABB, Unilever and Hitachi. Often to Hefei Economic and Technology Development Area.

In 2007 alone, 499 new foreign enterprises registered in the province’s cities of Hefei, seen in our illustration, Wuhu, Ma’anshan and Bengbu.

The capital Hefei, a six-hour bus ride west from Shanghai, is now home to more than 2,000 foreign enterprises, including 18 Fortune 500 companies. Along the Yangtze River, the city of Wuhu, another emerging spot for investment in Anhui, has attracted 34 Fortune 500 enterprises.

Since 2003, Shanghai, Zhejiang and Jiangsu have experienced electricity shortages. Anhui has no such worry. It has power capacity of 15.8 million kW, which could meet the entire provincial demand. Four more power projects were approved last June that will increase the capacity to 30 million kW when operational in 2010. Part of the power will be transmitted elsewhere in the Yangtze River Delta.
Source: Rednet

Weihai City, which is used to be known as ‘Weihaiwei’, is at the eastern point of the Shandong Peninsula, facing the sea in the three directions.

The Weihai Economic and Technical Development Zone (WETZ), authorized by the State Council, is in the southern suburb of Weihai City covering 72 square kilometers.

The investment for the construction of infrastructure was RMB4 billion. The electricity, water, heat, gas, transportation, communication, sewage treatment and ground are now all available.

WETZ borders on the line of Qingwei and Yanwei Express Way and Taiwei Railway. The international standardized Weihai Airport, which is 25 kilometers away from the WETZ, has newly reopened after reconstruction.

The Weihai harbor, which is only 3 kilometers away from the WETZ, has three international sailing lines to Korea, Hong Kong and Japan. The deep water harbor — the new Weihai Harbor, is equipped with several ten thousand-ton wharves.

There are 1,228 projects by investors from 16 countries such as Japan, Korea, the United States, Hong Kong.

The total investment value is RMB6 billion. The total investment of the 258 joint ventures has reached $590 million The eight mainstay industries include automobile, machinery, electronics, food, light industries, chemicals, building material, textile and pharmaceutical.
Source: China Business World

Ma Biao, Secretary of CPC Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Regional Committee has announced that the development plan for the Guangxi Beibu Gulf Zone had been approved and became part of the national development strategy.

The Beibu Gulf Zone is located in southwest China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region — the map shows the region rather than the zone — covering four cities; Nanning, Beihai, Qingzhou and Fangchenggang.

Surrounded by Guangdong and Hainan provinces, the zone has emerged as a new highlight of cooperation between China and ASEAN member countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Brunei.

Ma Biao said ‘We aim to develop the Pan Beibu Gulf Zone into a logistics, manufacturing, trading and communications center between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.’

The Zone will have an environment friendly green development approach, and will only give the go-ahead to projects that have passed a compulsory environmental protection assessment. More than half of the zone area has been kept as farm land and industrial parks take up less than 10% of the whole.
Source: CCTV

Chemical and polluting companies in the Guangdong provincial capital will be moved out of urban areas over the next eight years, according to Gan Xin, the city’s deputy mayor who was speaking in Guangzhou.

Gan Xin said the government will provide about RMB200 million ($28 million) to help the firms relocate and build new factories for them in 11 industrial development zones in Zengcheng, Huadu, Conghua and Nansha districts, which are far from the city’s urban areas.

He said, ‘In total, 279 firms will be moved, 119 of which will go before 2010.’

The move is part of the city’s urban reconstruction plan which was launched in December.

Those to be moved include a number of large-scale, State-owned firms such as the Guangzhou Paper Group and Guangzhou Baiyunshan Jigong Pharmaceutical.

The companies to be moved were chosen because they were violating national and local environmental protection regulations relating to emissions, sewage, noise and solid waste, and seriously affecting people’s living conditions.

Van Xin said companies that correct their polluting habits within a set period of time will be exempted.

Of the 119 firms to be relocated by 2010, 48 of them are chemical companies, while 53 are State-owned enterprises. A further 160 companies will be moved out of the urban district by 2015, 59 of them chemical firms.
Source: China View

In Taiyuan, there are three predominant economic zones: the Taiyuan Economic and Technological Development Zone, the Taiyuan High-Tech Industry Development Zone, and the Taiyuan Non-Public Economic Development Zone.

The Taiyuan High-tech Industry Development Zone is a state-level high-tech zone approved by the State Council, the earliest one in Shanxi province. Its planning area is 60.8 square kilometers. At which point we have to pause and consider the area is bigger than many towns.

The zone has entrances to Jing-Tai expressway, Da-Yun expressway and Tat-Jiu expressway. It is close to Wusu Airport.

There are more than 1,500 enterprises settled in the zone and about 300 of those are high-tech enterprises.

A pattern of ‘zero fee’ in management and ‘one stop in service for examination and approval procedures’ has been launched.

What is excellent is that, along with the development of this zone, Taiyuan has taken care of the environment. The construction of parks and recreational areas on both sides of the Fen River have been specifically praised by the UN Environmental Program.
Source: Taiyun

China in Brief has an article which is, in effect, a guide to special economic zones.

It states that in 1978 the Chinese government embarked on a policy of opening to the outside world in a planned way and step by step.
Since 1980, China has established special economic zones in Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shantou in Guangdong Province and Xiamen in Fujian Province, and designated the entire province of Hainan a special economic zone.
In 1984, China further opened 14 coastal cities — Dalian (seen in our illustration), Qinhuangdao, Tianjin, Yantai, Qingdao, Lianyungang, Nantong, Shanghai, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Zhanjiang and Beihai — to overseas investment.
Then, beginning in 1985, the state decided to expand the open coastal areas, extending the open economic zones of the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Xiamen-Zhangzhou-Quanzhou Triangle in south Fujian, Shandong Peninsula, Liaodong Peninsula, Hebei and Guangxi into an open coastal belt.
In 1990, the government decided to open the Pudong New Zone in Shanghai to overseas investment, and opened more cities in the Yangtze River valley.
In this way, a chain of open cities extending up the Yangtze River valley, with Shanghai’s Pudong as the ‘dragon head,’ was formed.
Since 1992, the State Council has opened a number of border cities, and in addition, opened all the capital cities of inland provinces and autonomous regions.
In addition, 15 free trade zones, 32 state-level economic and technological development zones, and 53 new- and high-tech industrial development zones have been established in large and medium-sized cities.

As these open areas adopt different preferential policies, they play the dual roles of ‘windows’ in developing the foreign-oriented economy, generating foreign exchanges through exporting products and importing advanced technologies and as ‘radiators’ in accelerating inland economic development.

The article which you can get by clicking on Source is an excellent basic guide.
Source: China in Brief

Chengdu will host the first leg of the 13th International IC-China Conference & Exhibition, the largest semiconductor event in China, on the last two days of this month. This will be at the Chengdu New International Exhibition and Convention Center and it underlines the fact the city is a major electronics hub in West China.

Chengdu in Sichuan Province has a population of 10,597,000, which makes Chengdu the fifth largest city in China in terms of population, following Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin and Chongqing.

(To get this into perspective there is only one city in Britain with a population over one million and that is London. And while New York has eight million odd — not as many as Chengdu but trying hard — there are only nine cities in the United States with populations over one million. By any standards Chengdu is one of the major cities of the world although many Westerners look blank when you mention its name.)

Some quick facts:

Chengdu Hi-tech Zone was initiated in 1988 and ratified as a state-ranked hi-tech industrial development zone in 1991.
With a planned area of 82 km2, the Zone consists of the south zone and west zone.
Chengdu Hi-tech Zone south zone was the major starting industrial area of the Hi-tech Zone.
Chengdu Hi-tech Zone west zone with a planned area of 35 km2. This is the international manufacturing base of the Hi-tech Zone. The park is focused on the microelectronics-oriented IT industries, pharmaceutical industries based on modernized traditional medicine and precision mechanical industries characterized with advanced technology.
Sichuan Chengdu Export Processing Zone (EPZ) was the first state-ranked EPZ in west China.
Chengdu’s Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone houses at least 30 Fortune 500 companies and 12,000 domestic companies, including China’s own Lenovo. Chip giant Intel has one of its IC assembly plants in Chengdu. Intel’s rival AMD is set to open an R&D center in this city. Other multinational tech companies with presence there include Nokia, Motorola, Microsoft, Alcatel and IBM.

There is an interesting YouTube about the zone. Click here.
Source: EE Times Asia

The first phase of Tianjin Dongjiang Bonded Harbor Area, China’s largest free trade harbor, came into operation on December 11. This is the bonded harbor area, which covers an area of 4 sq km. It includes warehouses, container terminals and processing and logistics zones, and involved an investment of RMB6.6 billion ($906.59 million).

The rest of the 6-sq-km area is under development and is due to be operational by 2010.

Xu Fu, a professor at the Tianjin-based Nankai University, said, ‘The harbor area is sort of an engine that could drive up the regional economy and business in Tianjin, especially the Tianjin Binhai New Area.’

In 1994, the Tianjin government proposed the idea of the Tianjin Binhai New Area, and the central government approved it as the nation’s third regional economy facilitator, after the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and Pudong New District in Shanghai.

Tianjin Port is now China’s fourth-largest and the sixth-largest worldwide.

In 2006, it handled 258 million tons in cargo. It plans to increase its cargo and container handling capacity up to 400 million tons and 12 million standard containers, TEUs, by 2010.

Professor Xu Fu said, ‘In China, the idea of bonded harbor areas comes at an opportune time.’

Some experts believe that compared to tariff-free zones, bonded harbor areas provide higher quality and more cost-effective services to exporters and importers because harbor areas, as their name suggests, are built much closer to ports. They are also equipped with tariff-free logistics parks, export processing bases and commodity showrooms.
Source: China Daily