Sometimes it is difficult to understand all the terms used. This is a brief primer.

Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are, for the moment, always located in mainland China. The government gives SEZs special economic policies and flexible governmental measures. This allows SEZs to utilize an economic management system that is especially conducive to doing business.

All of which seems pretty clear. And it has been going on since 1978 when the government decided to reform the national economic setup. Our illustration shows Shenzen, an early starter.

Since 1980, the PRC 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, the PRC further opened 14 coastal cities to overseas investment: Dalian, Qinhuangdao, Tianjin, Yantai, Qingdao, Lianyungang, Nantong, Shanghai, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Zhanjiang and Beihai.

Since 1988, mainland China’s opening to the outside world has been extended to its border areas, areas along the Yangtze River and inland areas.

(For the record Hainan Island is China’s biggest special economic zone.)

Shortly afterwards, the State Council expanded the open coastal areas, extending into an open coastal belt the open economic zones of the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Xiamen-Zhangzhou-Quanzhou Triangle in south Fujian, Shandong Peninsula, Liaodong Peninsula (Liaoning Province), Hebei and Guangxi.

In June 1990 the PRC government opened the Pudong New Area in Shanghai to overseas investment, and additional cities along the Yangtze River valley, with Shanghai’s Pudong New Area as its head.

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.

Now it get a bit complicated because the nomenclature changes along with the developments.

At that time 15 free trade zones, 32 state-level economic and technological development zones, and 53 new- and high-tech industrial development zones were established in large and medium-sized cities. What are the differences between these categroies. They tend to have different preferential policies although the general aim is always the same — building up trade.

The five special economic zones are foreign-oriented areas which are primarily geared to exporting processed goods, integrating science and industry with trade. In 1999, Shenzhen’s new-and high-tech industry became one with best prospects, and the output value of new-and high-tech products reached RMB81.98 billion, making up 40.5% of the city’s total industrial output value.

To sum up the attractions (and they have seriously worked because these zones have been a great success are:

1. Special tax incentives for foreign investments in the SEZs.
2. Greater independence on international trade activities.
3. Economic characteristics are represented as 4 principles:

a. Construction primarily to rely on attracting and utilizing foreign capital.
b. Primary economic forms to be Sino-foreign joint ventures and partnerships as well as wholly foreign-owned enterprises.
c. Products to be primarily export-oriented.

d. Economic activities primarily driven by market forces.

It helps a lot that it is a tropical paradise. China’s southern island province of Hainan has a blueprint to build itself into an international tourist destination by 2028. With an area of 34,000 square kilometers, tropical and subtropical Hainan was established in 1988 as a province and approved as a special economic zone enjoying preferential development policies.

Chen Cheng, Hainan’s vice governor, said at a press conference here the province would take about 20 years to internationalize its tourism facilities, services, products and improve the environment.

Well, yes, there is a lot in that but Hainan is already, in its own right, a wonderful tourist destination. Twenty years may be the time needed to reach its maximum. But the time it will take to become a major destination in its own right could probably be measured in months, not decades.

According to the action plans for the long-term goal of a first-class international tourist island the province will continue to implement its visa-free policies for tourists and open up aviation rights, introduce overseas travel agencies and hotel management corporations.

Last year, the island had 18.4 million tourist arrivals, including 750,000 from overseas, bringing in RMB17.1 billion (US$2.4 billion) in revenue. The total tourist numbers and revenue were 24 times and 150 times, respectively, greater than those of 1987. Let us not work on twenty year plans. Let us think, instead, of next year.
Source: China View

Ningbo Free Trade Zone (NFTZ) was one of fifteen free trade zones approved by the State Council since 1990 and is now over 15 years old.

Xia Qun, vice-director of Administrative Committee of NFTZ, said, ‘In 1992, the State Council approved the setup of the NFTZ; in 2002, the State Council approved Ningbo Export Processing Zone, and in 2005, the Ministry of Information Industry approved NFTZ as one of the first National Electronic Information Industrial parks. The dates are the milestones for the development of NFTZ.’

The 6.25-square-kilometer NFTZ has set up a free trade zone, an export processing zone, and a bonded logistics zone covering high-tech processing, international trade and logistics industrial clusters.

By the end of last year NFTZ has attracted 6,000 enterprises with registered capital of US$51.3 billion, of which 940 are foreign-funded firms from more than 60 countries and regions with investment amounts of US$5.3 billion.

Meanwhile the figures keep ascending.

Xia said independent innovation is the key for a Zone’s rapid development.

He said, ‘The administered committee of the NFTZ promotes the construction of innovation systems and promotes the achievements of advantageous technology and development of high-tech industry with building a State level IT industrial base as the objective, and independent innovation as the core.’

This year the zone expects an industry output value of RMB12.8 billion, international trade volume of US$3.2 billion and a fiscal income of RMB359 million for every square kilometer next year.

Xia Qun said, ‘The NFTZ is looking forward to a promising future.’ With figures like that who would argue?
Source: Ningbo Life

As one of China’s four special economic zones, the coastal city Shantou has outlined a ‘three economic belts’ development strategy to build on its leading position in Guangdong province.
That is:

An urban economic belt in the east.
An industrial economic belt in the south.
An ecological economic belt in the west.

Huang Zhigang, Shantou’s Party secretary said, ‘The strategy, which is of great significance to the city’s future development in the next decade, will help develop Shantou into a real environmentally friendly coastal city,’

The eastern urban economic belt, which starts from the Gulf Bridge in the west to Laiwu in Chenghai district, will be developed into the city’s Central Business District.

Construction of the planned 80 sq km along the coast will begin in October.

Of the planned land, about 20 sq km has to be reclaimed from the sea.

Huang Zhigang said, ‘Shantou has long been affected by limited land resources, So we have to reclaim land from the sea for the new urban expansion development.’

Construction of a 21-km-long sea wall and a 16-km-long road along the coast will begin this year.
Huang Zhigang, perhaps a trifle optimisticly, said, ‘We will also build a long scenic belt along the eastern coast area, providing a real beachscape facing the South China Sea,’

Meanwhile, the southern industrial economic belt, which starts from the bonded zone and Guang’ao Port in the east to Chaonan district, has a planned area of about 117 sq km.

Within the industrial belt, construction has begun on Huaneng Haimen Power Plant, one of Guangdong’s key industrial projects during the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10).

Guang’ao Port, another big project within the industrial belt, has also started construction.

A natural deep-water port, Guang’ao Port has so far opened seven international routes to the Mediterranean, Middle East, Philippines and Japan, and 14 routes directly to 25 domestic ports.

A new railway section connecting to the Shenzhen-Xiamen Railway is being built.

Shantou will also develop an ecological economic belt in the west. Covering an area of about 388 sq km, the ecological belt will mainly develop environmentally friendly agriculture, hi-tech industries, a science and education zone and an urban tourism zone.
Source: China Daily

Anji-TNT Logistics, a provider of logistics services for auto part makers, has leased the entirety of a 234,000-square-foot distribution center at ProLogis Park Jiangning in Nanjing. Anji-TNT will operate the space on behalf of Italian automaker Fiat.

ProLogis Park Jiangning is located in a government-sponsored economic development zone adjacent to the Nanjing Lukou International Airport. When finished, the park will comprise six facilitates totaling more than 1.5 million square feet.

Nanjing has also seen rapid industrial growth in recent years in the auto industry. Late this year, for example, Ford will begin producing Fiesta automobiles in Nanjing at a $510 million plant that will produce 160,000 cars annually.

The Nanjing park is one of five similar developments that ProLogis began last year in China. The other four are in the major cities of Changsha, Chengdu, Chongqing and Wuhan.
Source: Commercial Property News

Man Sang Holdings is opening a pearl and jewelery zone in a 55%-owned investment and development project of the group in Zhuji, ,Zhejiang Province.

The opening of the center and the pearl and jewelery procurement fair were timed to coincide with the Third China — Zhuji Xishi Cultural Festival and Sixth China (International) Pearl Festival in an effort to promote the commercial and cultural aspects of pearl and jewelery trading to the world.

Known as CP&J City — it stands for China Pearls and Jewelery City — it has strong support from the provincial and municipal governments. CP&J City has also signed a strategic partnership cooperative memorandum of agreement with the Gemological Institute of America.

Over a thousand jewellery traders, purchasers, and representatives from business associations attended the opening as well as the usual push of government officials and representatives from other countries.

CP&J City is expected to become a center for pearl and jewelery trading.

The market centre in Phase 1 of the CP&J City has a construction area of 160,000 sq. m. accommodating about 2,380 shops and booths.

When the whole CP&J City project is completed, it will have an estimated over 5,000 shops and booths and become the world’s largest of its kind.

In total CP&J City will have a site area of 1.2 million sq. m. which will be developed in phases.
Source: CentreDaily

There are so many economic zones — sometimes slightly disguised with other names — that it is easy to get confused.

A bit of history may help put it in perspective.

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, Qinhuangdao, Tianjin, Yantai, Qingdao, Lianyungang, Nantong, Shanghai, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Zhanjiang and Beihai—to overseas investment.
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 Chinese government decided to open the Pudong New Zone in Shanghai to overseas investment, and opened more cities in the Yangtze River valley.
This has ended up as a chain of open cities extending up the Yangtze River valley, with Shanghai’s Pudong as the ‘dragon head.’
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.

It is massive. Huge. Almost beyond comprehension.

Not all of these zones are the same. Not all have the same abjectives. But effectively they all play multiple roles in developing the foreign-oriented economy, generating foreign exchange through exporting products and importing advanced technologies and as ‘radiators’ in accelerating inland economic development.

How well does it work? Take a single example in a single place. 78 Chinese and foreign-funded financial institutions have been set up in Lujiazui, Pudong, of which 24 foreign-funded banks have been approved to engage in RMB business.

Or, on a wider scale, there are at least 5,900 foreign-funded enterprises, with a total investment of nearly US$30 billion, and there over 5,000 major domestic enterprises across the country with a total registered capital of about RMB20 billion.
Source: China in Brief

TEDA — Tianjin Economic Technological Development Area — has passed the acceptance test of three ministries and commissions of the central government and become one of China’s first group of eco-industrial parks.

The acceptance team of the leading office of the development of the national eco-industrial model zones, which is composed of the State Environmental Protection Administration, the Ministry of Commerce, and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, conducted in TEDA a two-day acceptance test.

Thus it is now an eco-industrial park ‘propelled by the government, centered on enterprises, and supported by all people.’

The basic conditions and indicators of TEDA meet the requirement as stipulated in China’s Standards for Comprehensive Eco-Industrial Parks.

Apart from TEDA, Suzhou Industrial Park and Suzhou National New & Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone have also passed the acceptance test.
Source: All Roads Lead to China

China has embraced a new airport cities concept by setting a five-year plan in motion to develop all types of commercial space inside and outside the airport’s fences. The buildings are an offshoot of its annual growth in passenger and cargo traffic.

China is leading the world in the development of airport cities, with 15 in various stages of planning as support for an aeronautical pipeline calling for 95 additional airports by 2020 for the existing base of 149 facilities

Ping Wang, co-founder and EVP of Washington, DC-based Garfinkle & Wang Associates, and the general manager of GCW in Beijin gaid seven of the country’s existing airports, which include shared facilities with the military, are supporting 70% of the country’s annual passenger and cargo traffic.

The country is caught in an infrastructure race to build roads and high-speed rail to support office, retail, logistics, manufacturing and residential development, all airport-anchored and related. Ping Wang said, ‘The airport city program fits the People’s Republic of China’s airports extremely well.
Souce: Globest

Fuzhou Economic and Technical Development Zone (which we will refer to as FETDZ in the interests of brevity) started in January, 1985 and was one of the first state-class economic-technological development areas in the country.

It is in Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province and reaches to the outlet of Min River and covers about 23 square kilometers.

Uniquely it is an Export Processing Zone, Free Trade zone, Taiwanese investing zone and high-tech Park. It is the only one ot its kind which manages to be all of those.

In Aug. 1996, the Ministry of Communication selected the FETDZ-based Fuzhou port as the pilot port for direct shipping across the Taiwan Straits. WHich means that the current signs of an easing of relationships with Taiway suggest the Fuzhou may be due for a major spurt of growth.

There are currently over 30 countries and regions in the world represented in the FETDZ which mainly focuses on electronics, photoelectric machinery and electronic instruments, biochemical pharmacy, machinery, metallurgy, building materials, textile and other light industries.

Now further efforts for development will be made to extend the service field to include trade, tourism, transportation and finance and possibly modern agriculture.

Its unique advantage is that it is the nearest zone on the mainland to Taiwan.

Mawei, the seat of FETDZ administration, is a district consisting of two towns and one avenue, an area of 174 square kilometers with a population of 82,000. The FETDZ administrative committee is granted the authority for management, examination and approval of foreign-funded projects.

FETDZ is very clear on the advantages from its vicinity to Taiwan will become increasingly obvious as people on either side of the Taiwan Straits further enhance their economic relations and trade contacts.
Source: FETDZ