[photopress:zones_leoni.jpg,full,alignright]Germany-based Leoni AG has has set up a base for the production of aviation cables in the Changzhou National New and High-tech District of Jiangsu Province. This brings it investment in the area to nearly $70 million.

As early as 1993, Leoni AG had already invested in Changzhou High-tech Zone and this has been an ongoing investment.

With the accumulated investment of nearly $70 million, Leoni has become the biggest and oldest investor in this area.
Now in the the second-phase of its engineering project, Leoni has put an additional capital of RMB33 million into the construction of the aviation cable production base.

Leoni Special Cables (Changzhou) Co. Ltd, with a registered average annual growth rate of 40% to 50%, plans to reach a sales volume of RMB1 billion in 2012.
Source: ECN Asia

[photopress:zone_changsha_1_2.jpg,full,alignright]About 300 outsourcing firms have set up in Changsha’s software and outsourcing zone. Some have partnerships with big names including IBM and Google, but most are tiny operations. One of the most promising locally bred IT companies, Powerise International Software which was bought by Chinasoft in 2006.

Today, Chinasoft’s 160 staff members in Changsha do IT outsourcing for mainly Japanese companies, but most of it is coding work and software testing, not the high-end engineering and designing that Changsha craves.

VanceInfo Technologies’ experience in Changsha isn’t encouraging.

The Beijing firm opened a branch here in 2003. Tian said it took him nine months to recruit 60 engineers. They had little trouble doing the work, including developing, testing and localizing software and handling electronic transfers of loans for major banks.

But Tian said his staff in Changsha, lacking strong English skills, struggled in conference calls with customers. Nor were VanceInfo’s clients entirely comfortable dealing in a small city unfamiliar to them, he said, and the firm shut the office in 2005.

‘Compared to the Japanese, major clients in Europe and North America emphasized much more the city’s characteristics,” Tian said. ‘They preferred Shanghai. Our clients weren’t supporting our establishing centers in cities like Changsha.’
China marches into outsourcing

This may not aound over-encouraging but these obstacles can be overcome.

For example, Beijing-based Chinasoft International Ltd., is recruiting hundreds of workers in Changsha to process medical bills and health insurance claims. Its target customers: U.S. doctors.

Chen Yuhong, Chinasoft’s managing director, thinks it’s only a matter of time before China makes big gains against India — which now leads the world in information technology outsourcing. Chen Youhong said, ‘They’re seriously concerned about our challenge.’

Most analysts reckon it’ll be perhaps a decade before China catches up. India’s IT outsourcing revenue, estimated at $18 billion in 2007, is about six times the size of China’s. The gap figures to be even bigger for business-process outsourcing, such as medical billing and back-office work.

China’s sales of IT outsourcing work are growing at roughly twice the rate of India’s. Consulting firm Analysys International says they jumped 45% in the fourth quarter of 2007, to about $600 million.

China’s government wants both — and is helping with incentives. Firms setting up in designated outsourcing zones can enjoy a two-year waiver of taxes. They can get a subsidy of about $700 per employee for training and hiring. Local governments are chipping in with sweet deals for rent and land, as well as cash for certain sectors.

Chinasoft’s Chen, though, sees a way to leverage China’s large domestic market into offshore contracts. As more Chinese businesses and public agencies contract out their IT, back-office and call-center operations, the firms that provide those services could offer connections to Western firms to help them break into the Chinese market.
Source: LA Times

[photopress:zone__wuhan.jpg,full,alignright]The Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone was the site of the official opening of the integrated foundry and machining operation of Wescast Industries (China) located in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.

The integrated foundry and machining facility was commissioned in the fourth quarter of 2007 and has been operational since the first quarter of 2008.

Wescast, a Canadian company, is currently manufacturing production parts for customers in Asia and is ramping up several new programs destined for markets around the globe.

Susan Gregson, Canadian consul general in Shanghai, said, ‘As China’s vehicle assembly capacity increases, so do the business opportunities for Canadian manufacturers to supply components and modules.’

The facility currently employs approximately 200 employees, which is expected to grow to 600 once full production is achieved.

Wescast Industries. is the world’s leading supplier of cast iron exhaust manifolds for passenger cars and light trucks.
Source: Fox Businesss

[photopress:air_Wang_YungMinh__Hainan.jpg,full,alignright]China and the US will inaugurate six non-stop air routes between the two countries in 2008 and 2009, according to their agreement on further opening up aviation markets for each other.

Delta Air Lines has opened the Shanghai-Atlanta non-stop routes, marking the first US airline to open non-stop route between China and Southeast America and the first route of the airline to China.
United Airlines is to open the Guangzhou-San Francisco route on this June 20.
Northwest Airlines will fly the Detroit-Shanghai flight in 2009.
[photopress:air_panam.jpg,full,alignleft]Pan American World Airways (note although this is mentioned by World Markets the original airline has been defunct for some years and if it is flying this will be the third attempt at resuscitation. The picture is to remind older readers of the delights of that airline) will fly the Philadelphia-Beijing flight in 2009. A careful check shows this news was not released on April 1.
Continental Airlines will launch the Shanghai-New York flight in March 2009.

Apart from US air carriers, some large Chinese air carriers will also open non-stop routes between the two countries.

For instance, Hainan Airlines, will inaugurate the Beijing-Seattle route this June.

This will not be easy. The eight 787s Hainan ordered from Boeing had been scheduled to arrive in June; they’re now delayed until at least March.

Preparations to launch a new route can take a full a year, but to begin service for the summer tourist season, Hainan is finishing in half that time. The Chinese airline had been in talks with the Port of Seattle for several years about new nonstop service; it received approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation to go ahead in February.

Hainan is scrambling to complete its online reservations system and reach code-share deals with U.S. airlines to offer regional connections throughout the Northwest.

Most Americans have never heard of Hainan, China’s version of Hawaii, let alone its airline, Wang Yingming, the head of the airline and shown in our illustration) is confident he can win them over with superior service.

Founded in 1993, Hainan is China’s fourth-largest carrier, behind Air China, China Southern and China Eastern. The top three are state-run companies, but Hainan is not. It trades on the Shanghai stock exchange.

Hainan has expanded rapidly, ascending along with China’s booming economy. It flies to more than 40 cities within China and has international routes to Europe, Russia and Japan.
Sources: Trading Markets and The Seattle Tunes

[photopress:zone_Yangpu_Industrial_Park.jpg,full,alignright]A one-million-ton ethylene project will be sited in Yangpu Development Zone in the northwestern part of the Hainan island province by the Sinopec Group. This will be the largest ethylene project in China.

With the approval of the National Development and Reform Commission, Hainan Province and Sinopec will jointly formulate and put forward the plan and start construction of the project at the end of 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010).

According to cooperation agreement, Sinopec will undertake the project market research and feasibility study and draw up investment plan, and Hainan Province will be responsible for making environmental appraisal and building supporting water, power, gas and other public projects.

Fang Xiaoyu, vice governor of Hainan Province, stated that the and backed up by existing eight-million-ton oil refinery project in the development zone, the ethylene project will extend the petrochemical industrial chain and make the province’s petrochemical industry bigger and stronger.

At present, ethylene product is in great demand in China, with nearly 40% of the supply imported.
Source: YNFX

[photopress:zone_shantou.jpg,full,alignright]The coastal city of Shantou has outlined a ‘three economic belts’ development strategy to build on its leading position in Guangdong province and its position as one of China’s four special economic zones.

The strategy includes an urban economic belt in the east, an industrial economic belt in the south and an ecological economic belt in the west.

Huang Zhigang, Shantou’s Party secretary. ssiad, ‘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.’

With a planned area of 80 sq km along the coast, construction of the belt will begin in October. Of the planned land, about 20 sq km has to be reclaimed from the sea.

The city currently has 2,470 people per sq km in its urban area, five times higher than Guangdong province’s average.
Construction of a 21-km-long sea wall and a 16-km-long road along the coast will soon begin.

According to Liao Xiaoping, deputy director of the Shantou development and reform bureau, the industrial belt will mainly develop heavy industries, including oil and chemicals, electricity, high and new technology, equipment and manufacturing, oceanic industry and logistics.

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).

Chen Yaowu, an official with the Shantou economic and trade bureau, says that development of three economic belts will help attract more overseas and domestic investment.
Source: China Daily

[photopress:zone_rfisd_tire.jpg,full,alignright]Located on 4,300,000 square feet within the National Economic and Technological Development Zone in Qingdao, Mesnac’s subsidiary SaiLun is credited as being the first tire manufacturer to integrate production, research and demonstration techniques while developing new products.

Mesnac has established long-term cooperation agreements in scientific research with colleges and institutes such as the National University of Defense Technology and Qingdao University of Science and Technology.

Now Advanced ID Corporation, a leading developer of radio frequency identification technology - RFID - has announced the adoption of its RFID tire tag products. Mesnac, owner of SaiLun, has agreed to purchase a minimum of two million RFID tire tags and a quantity of RFID readers from Advanced ID. 10,000 have already been installed and tested.

Mesnac intends to lobby for widespread adoption of RFID technology for use in all tires driven in or made in China. Tracking of tires enables the documentation of the entire life of the tire — from point of origin through retreading and service repairs.
Source: Trading Markets

[photopress:zones_high_tech.jpg,full,alignright]China has announced approval for 20 national hi-tech trade bases to boost exports of hi-Tec products and improve competitiveness in international markets.

According to the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) and Ministry of Science and Technology the new bases, mostly hi-tech development zones in such major cities as Shanghai, Chongqing, Wuhan and Xiamen, have more than 300 national scientific research institutes each.

They included the information technology, biological medicine, manufacturing, fine chemicals, new materials and new energy sources sectors.

With 18 bases approved last year, the move brings the number of national hi-tech trade bases to 38.

MOC official Zhang Ji said the MOC would help these bases develop products for overseas markets by providing support in research funding, personnel training, export credit, commercial information and protection of intellectual property rights.

Official figures said China’s exports of hi-tech products jumped 31.8% year-on-year to $314.4 billion in the first 11 months of last year.
Source: People’s Daily Online

[photopress:zones_railway.jpg,full,alignright]The Xiamen Economic Zone in Fujian Province and Shenzhen Economic Zone in Guangdong Province are going to be linked by train and work has already started.

The railway starts from Xiamen, a port city facing Taiwan, and runs 502.4 kilometers southwest along the coast to Shenzhen

Upon its completion in 2011, the railway will allow trains to travel at a speed of 200 kilometers per hour, and a journey between the two cities will take about three hours compared with current 11 hours. Which is great for passengers but that  is not primarily what the train is about

The rail link is designed to transport 12 million tons of cargo a year and accommodate 120 pairs of trains per day.

The RMB41.7-billion ($5.6 billion) project will be co-funded by the Ministry of Railways, and the Fujian and Guangdong provincial governments.

The new line will be another important section of China’s coastal railway artery.  Currently two railway lines giving  links are being constructed. One links Wenzhou of Zhejiang Province with Fuzhou, capital of Fujian, and the other links Fuzhou and Xiamen.

Xiamen and Shenzhen were among the first four special economic zones designated by the state council in 1980.
Source: People’s Daily Online

[photopress:zone_Gaoke.jpg,full,alignright]A-Power Energy Generation Systems has just announced its financial results. In its report it averts to the fact that it was known as Chardan China Acquisition before becoming A-Power. It acquired Head Dragon Holdings although this was not finalized until the beginning of this year. Head Dragon Holdings was initially formed to act as a holding company to hold the equity interests in GaoKe.

GaoKe is one of the leading Chinese companies that designs, constructs, and installs distributed power generation and micro power grids.

GaoKe is the only private company authorized to develop, construct, install and test distributed power generation and micro power grids in China.

For 2007, Head Dragon’s revenue (think of it as the total revenue for the group) was $152.5 million, an increase of 54.5% from $98.7 million in 2006. The increase was due to continued growth in the Company’s core distributed power generation business.

Jinxiang Lu, A-Power’s Chairman and CEO, said, ‘2007 was a monumental year for A-Power’s subsidiaries, both strategically and operationally. Power supply shortages in China were more apparent than ever as widespread blackouts and brownouts occurred more frequently throughout the country.

‘Furthermore, the PRC government continued with its plans to encourage new development zones in China, most of which are far removed from the existing national grid.

‘These drivers, among others, accelerated our distributed power generation business in 2007 and are expected to further drive the growing market opportunity for A-Power’s distributed power generation systems in the coming years.’

‘In 2007 we also made it a priority to become a full-scale producer of high quality wind turbines to capitalize on China’s surging wind energy demand.’

‘A-Power Energy Generation Systems, formerly Chardan, through its PRC operating subsidiaries, is the largest provider of distributed power generation systems in China and will enter into China’s wind energy market in 2008.

‘The company will focus on supplying power to new industrial zones.’

The Company is also focused on developing and commercializing additional renewable energy technologies and has strategic relationships with both Tsinghua University and the China Sciences Academy in Guangzhou.
Source: BusinessWire