Beihai under the red pointer

An industry shift from the Yangtze and Pearl river deltas has brought an enormous development opportunity to Beihai, a coastal city in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

Beihai lured 35 projects from the eastern region in the first half this year, with total investment of RMB17.667 billion ($2.59 billion). Actual capital used in that period was RMB2.61 billion.

The Pan-Beibu Gulf Sub-regional Economic Region was launched in 2006.

With a population of 12.55 million and a land area of 42,500 sq km, the Guangxi Beibu Gulf Economy Area is the biggest multi-regional cooperation area in the country, covering the administrative areas of four major cities — Nanning, capital of Guangxi, Beihai, Qinzhou and Fangchenggang — which together are known as “NanBeiQinFang”.

The area’s development plan is already bringing industry and investment to NanBeiQinFang with Beihai leading the way.

Much, much more on this HERE.
Source: China Daily

Scene from a TAL promotional video

TAL Apparel’s new $70 million factory in  Dongguan, a manufacturing zone two hours’ drive from Hong Kong, shows how manufacturing is changing in  China.

The factory’s pristine white floors and brightly lit aisles look more like a modern office suite than a clothing factory. In one corner, automated cutting machines slice out fabric for men’s trousers, a process that wastes less material and requires only about half the staff needed to cut patterns by hand. In another section of the plant, a computerized system of ceiling tracks ferries the pants on hangers. At the end of the assembly line, the high-quality garments emerge sporting brand names like L.L. Bean and Dockers.

S.N. Yip, a director at TAL, says that only the most modern, efficient factories can thrive in today’s China. He said, ‘If you want to run a sweatshop, this isn’t the place.’

The average monthly pay of China’s factory workers increased 66% between 2004 and 2007 to $234, an amount that is well above the wages earned in other Asian countries.

However businessmen say that clusters of factories in similar industries in the zones that have formed along the mainland’s coast create a ready supply chain for important raw materials and components, while China’s superior infrastructure makes shipping products overseas extremely efficient. These factors have convinced many industrialists to stay put.

Much more HERE.
Source: Time

Quanzhou Export Processing Zone

The 12th China International Fair for Investment and Trade was held in Xiamen City.

During the Fair, the Quanzhou Export Processing Zone signed an agreement on September 8 with Silan Achievement Chemplex for a large-sized petrochemical plant, which will be one of Fujian Province’s key promotion projects.

The plant, which is expected to generate RMB3 billion in annual output value and sell 200,000t of petrochemical products, has already been registered with the relevant industrial and commercial authorities and negotiations with the Zone are now under way so that the land plot transfer agreement may be signed.
Source: China Information Explorer

Reicholds coatings

Reichhold has signed a letter of intent with the Tianjin Economic Development Area to start a new unsaturated polyester resins project. Reichhold intends to build a 50,000-ton-per-year unsaturated polyester resins project in Tanggu in the development zone.

The proposed plant is expected to attract a total investment of $40 million and has a registered capital of about $120 million.

To date, 3,300 foreign companies have established branches in the area, with a total investment exceeding $15 billion.
Source: MarketWatch

The longest bridge in the world.

Zhejiang, which boasts of the longest cross-sea bridge in the world, is located in the southern part of the Yangtze River Delta on the southeast coast of China and northeast of Shanghai, Zhejiang is also known for having the longest coastline among the provinces at 6,600 kilometers.

Zheijiang has 11 cities — Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Huzhou, Jiaxing, Shaoxing, Jinhua, Quzhou, Zhoushan, Taizhou, and Lishui — and a population of 50.6 million as of 2007.

The 36-kilometer Hangzhou Bay Sea-Crossing Bridge, which officially opened to traffic last May 1, connects Ningbo, a port city in Zhejang, to Shanghai.

Several economic zones are also being developed in Zhejiang, among them the Hangzhou Bay New Zone, the Ningbo National Hi-Tech Development Zone and the Ningbo Meishan Free Trade Port Area.

Facing the Hangzhou Bay to its north, the Hangzhou Bay Zone is located in the northern part of Ningbo.

Aside from being a manufacturing and research base, the Hangzhou Bay Zone will be a ‘modern and ecologically-friendly industrial city.’

Inside the Hangzhou zone are the Cixi Export Processing Zone and the Cixi Economic Development Zone.

And while this zone activity is going on the area is being groomed for its massive tourist potential.

The idea is to show the two concepts can work together.
Source: Global Nation

Model in XEDTZ

Xiaoshan Economic and Technological Development Zone (XETDZ), started in May 1993. This state-level zone now covers an area of 133 square kilometers divided into three industrial parks: Shibei, Qiaonan and Jiangdong.

The Jiangdong Industrial Area with its 105 square kilometers of planning area and the area for future expansion.
The Shibei Industrial Park which is exclusive to the service industry.
The Qiaonan Industrial Park, the typical base for foreign investments for industrial activities.

The zone is located alongside the Qiantang river within the Xiaoshan district of Hangzhou. Add the XETDZ to the ongoing construction of the Qianjiang Century central business district which will host finance, trading, consulting and logistics activities along with IT services companies, administrative organizations, hotels, residential areas and entertainments facilities.

The XETDZ has the advantage of being near the shipping infrastructure in the city and the Qiantang river which offers access to harbors along the coast. The XETDZ is equipped with an inland port and a customs office. The illustration comes from Smart Wool Textile products which is within the zone.
Source: China Briefing

Huang Wenhua, director of the CETDZ’s administrative committee (Changchun Economic and Technical Development Zone) attributes the fast economic growth of the zone to a turnaround plan initiated in 2005.

He said, ‘The situation was clear, right under our noses. We needed more space.’

A blueprint drawn up to enlarge the areas to the east and north.
A plan to change from only manufacturing to innovation gradually took shape.

The original 10 special parks within the zone were trimmed and merged into three — automobiles and their parts, corn processing and related chemicals, and modern services.

RMB3.8 billion  was spent in 2006 and 2007 to upgrade infrastructure, including building more roads and railways.

Huang said the area has now set a ‘green threshold’ for investment.

Huang Wenhua said. ‘No matter how big the economic benefits are for an investment project, if it fails to pass the environmental evaluation by local environmental bureaus, we cannot accept it.’

It all seems to work. The value of gross industrial output value in the zone rose from RMB34.7 billion in 2005 to RMB62 billion in 2007.

Changchun’s ranking has now jumped to 15th overall, and to the top of the list of nine such zones in central and northeast China.
Source: China Daily

Located in Ningbo’s Beilun District, the Ningbo Economic and Technical Development Zone, one of China’s earliest (1984) and largest national development zones, currently covers an area of 29.6 square kilometers.

Among the 12,000 foreign enterprises present in Ningbo, about 1,400 are set up in the zone.

It is almost all things to all businesses — a bonded logistics zone, a free trade zone, an export processing zone and with the Ningbo Daxie island development zone located nearby.

Industries such as textiles and food processing, as well as automobiles, machinery and equipment manufacturing, have used the NETDZ as their preferred export base. In 2005 the GDP of the zone reached RMB23.40 billion while the total investment amounted to US$2.59 billion, and the contracted FDI was US$1.05 billion.

Now the NETDZ is placing more emphasis on the high-tech sector.

One of the main attractions is the port. Located in the middle of the Chinese coastline and facing the Pacific Ocean, Beilun Port hopes to use a unique geographic edge to become world famous. Its 18.2-meter water front depth can provide access for vessels of up to 250,000 tons fully loaded.
Source: China Briefing and Ningpo Life

International property consulting and management firm Jones Lang LaSalle has conducted in-depth research into the business park sector in China. Although is still in its infancy it is now firmly poised for lift-off.

According to the report, today’s business parks are generally characterized by location in suburban areas and a broad mix of building types.

China’s emerging business park sector is enjoying strong demand.

Jileen Loo, head of business park sector for Jones Lang LaSalle China, said, ‘The stock of business park space in China, which is estimated to stand currently at about 17 million sq m, is expected to more than double to around 38 million square meters by 2010. Over 60% of the current stock is located in the four cities of Shanghai, Beijing, Dalian and Guangzhou.’ Much more HERE.

Source: China Daily

A new coastal city will be built in Caofeidian, an industrial zone in North China on the Bohai Sea.

DHV, an engineering consultancy, has been commissioned, together with the Chinese planning institute Qinghua and the Arup consultancy from the UK, to carry out a coastal and urban development project in China.

The coastal city is to be built on an area of 150 square km to provide space for one million residents. Included in its concept is an island and a lagoon.

The concept allows for the creation of fresh groundwater in a sustainable manner for use in the city’s green spaces.

Because of the coastal location in a salt-water area, and because of the limited rainfall in the north of China, there is little fresh water available for the future inhabitants. Thus one of the project’s challenges is to capture and recycie fresh water in as a sustainable manner as possible.

The city’s construction will begin in 2009 next to an industrial port comparable in size to that of the Port of Rotterdam. (And the technology will be similar to that used in the Wadden Sea, Holland and Denmark, part of which is shown in our illustration.)

Source: RedOrbit