Picturesque Shenyang

A bonded logistics centre is to be set up in Shenyang Offshore Economic Zone. Enterprises in Shenyang will only need to show their export invoices, declarations of goods and other documents to deal with duty drawback and duty exemption in accordance with the relevant provisions.

This will be a bonded logistics center as a special site monitored by customs. There are fairly strict requirements for setting up such a center:

The site is near seaports, airports, and inland transportation hubs.
Has large inland demand for international logistics.
Is equipped with customs agencies and is easy for the customs to carry out centralized monitoring.
Has security isolation facilities, video surveillance systems and other facilities in line with the requirements of customs.

Zhang Xinbo, deputy director of management committee of Shenyang Offshore Economic Zone, said Shenyang Bonded Logistics Center is located to the west of Tonghaichanye Road. Its general planning area is 10 square kilometers, with a total investment of RMB500 million.

The first phase is designed to cover an area of 0.5 square kilometers.

Much more on this HERE.
Source: Shenyang Evening News

The Liaoning provincial government has released a development plan for a two-city integration strategy.

The plan involves neighboring cities less than 10 km apart — the provincial capital Shenyang and resource-rich Fushun. Both are known as traditional industrial centers.

According to the plan, the two cities will forge closer ties and pool resources in transportation, communication, industrial production, technology, health care, education and financial services.

Shenyang’s edge in industry, human resources and technology complement the raw materials and labor force of Fushun.

Shenyang City

Development of an adjoining 605-sq-km area between the two cities is key to the scheme.

With the Hunhe River running through it, the pilot area is divided into two parts — an ecological zone north of the river and an industrial zone to the south. Part of the concept is to establish an eco-friendly urban Shenyang-Fushun corridor.

More on this HERE.
Source: English People’s Daily Online

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

Zhengzhou, Henan province

The 10th Asian Art Festival will open on September 26 in Zhengzhou. It is one of China’s most famed historic cities and a well-known tourism destination due to its ancient civilization and Songshan Mountain World Geopark.

The city was a cradle of Chinese civilization, with unearthed relics indicating it was the center of human activity some 8,000 years ago. Local authorities expect the Art Festival will also show the city’s recent advancements in culture and other social and economic fields.

Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province in the center of the country, covers 7,446 sq km and has a population of 7.36 million people.

It may be a historical gem but it is also modern and expanding in that it has six districts, five cities, one county, two State-level development zones and one State-level export processing zone under its administration.

Zhengdong new district will be the central business district of Zhengzhou. In 2007, the city’s gross domestic product reached RMB242.12 billion, ranking 17th among China’s large and medium-sized cities and ninth among the provincial capitals.

A recent move is the construction of the Zhengdong new district. With a planned area of 50 sq km and population of 220,000, this will be the central business district of Zhengzhou. To date, about 600 new enterprises have been registered there.
Source: China View

Kaesong Industrial Park

The Kaesong Industrial Park is, as it were, a capitalist foothold of the South Korean government in North Korea. And it is openly states that it is the North Korean equivalent of Shenzhen, the special investment zone that helped begin China’s free-market miracle nearly 20 years ago.

Kaesong Industrial Park is booming. The park’s operator, South Korean developer Hyundai Asan, hopes to expand it into a mini-city in the next 12 years, with high-rise flats and hotels, a lake and three golf courses.

By that time, the company hopes there will be about 2,000 factories employing 350,000 North Koreans and producing $20 billion worth of goods a year. That compares with an output of only $366 million in the first half of this year. In the six months to June, the flow of goods in and out of the industrial park accounted for 42% of the $881m in trade between the two Koreas.

Supporters of engagement in Seoul say their long-term aim is to prepare the North for unification with the wealthier South. For the North, the economic links mean hard currency.

Whether this successful model will be extended will depend to a large extent to the relationships between North and South Korea. But it is a good start and has taken the Chinese zones, perhaps the greatest success story in Asia’s commercial history, as its model.
Source: Business.Scotsman.com

Zhangjiagang Zone

On the southern bank of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and more than 50 kilometers long from east to west, 2 kilometers wide from south to north. Think of it as a long thin strip.

In the west the zone borders on to Zhangjiagang Free Trade Zone.
In the north is Nantong City on the opposite side of the river.
In the east it is connected with Shanghai Pudong Development Zone and Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone.
To the south: Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou.

The area along the bank of the Yangtze River is suitable to build over 10,000-ton deep-water wharves because it never silts up or freezes.

Yangtze River’s transport capacity is as great as 7 railways. And, like railways, it has its branches extending in all directions.

Which means  goods can be easily transported to large and medium-sized cities in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

Added to that is the Yanjiang Highway, which is 24 meters wide and 51.8 kilometers long and runs through the whole zone connecting to No. 204 State Highway. And for air connections Shanghai Hongqiao Airport, Suzhou Guangfu Airport, Wuxi Shuofang Airport, Changzhou Benniu Airport and Nantong Xingdong Airport in a  sense surround the zone.
Source: CMW.com

Qingdao zone (QDTDZ)

This was one of the earliest zones being approved as state-level development zone in October 1984. The zone now has a population of 300,000.

It is on the west bank of the Jiaozhou Bay and, to give it its full name, the Qingdao Economic and Technological Development Zone (QETDZ), is about 24 kilometers to the city proper directly across the sea.

The Zone accesses downtown Qingdao through the 66-kilometer expressway that runs around the Jiaozhou Bay and by means of sea routes.

The Port of Qingdao is one of the largest five foreign trade ports of China. It was first built in 1892 and now has 15 wharves with 73 berths, 31 of which are capable of handling 10,000-ton. It has trade exchanges with over 450 ports of more than 130 countries and regions in the world.

QETDZ is 53 kilometers away from Qingdao International Airport.

The zone is served by the Jiaozhou-Huangdao Railway and the expressway around the Jiaozhou Bay.

The QETDZ specializes in electronics, household electric appliances, building materials, petrochemicals, machinery and pharmaceuticals and is, in effect, a series of zones working together.
Source: Chinese Business World

One of the best summaries of zones and how they work in China is offered by the US Embassy. It takes this history of the zones from the early 1980s and in an impartial and unbiased way gives a complete run down of what they are and how to distinguish between them.

It is of the opinion that their success largely stems from the preferential policies they offer and the safe investment environment they create. And the fact they tend to share advantages such as convenient locations, modern developed infrastructure, rich human resources and efficient management and services.

The paper reports that often the name differences refer to duty levels and import/export restrictions. Then it adds a warning:

‘The differences can be, by far, greater than the similarities. For manufacturing investors in China, choosing a development zone as their base is the first step in an enormous risk-hedging exercise. Most consider at least three, or as many as five. As every zone has personality of its own, it is essential to look beyond the pamphlets and the published information, and get down to the details.’

‘The key points to consider, however, will still be whether the added value brought by location, local administration and services, tax rebates will justify an operation in dearer development zones.’

It also mentions that in 2003 the Ministry of Land and Resources and other government departments concluded an unprecedented nationwide probe into rampant land abuses in development zones in 2003.

The investigation resulted in the shutting-down of 4,735 development zones, about 70% per cent of the nation’s total.

From there it goes on to cover the subject most thoroughly and should be mandatory reading for anyone thinking of operating within a zone. The full paper as a .doc document HERE.
Source: US Embassy

The first phase of a Chinese-funded economic and trade cooperation zone that has gone into operation in Russia’s Ussuriysk will simplify trade procedures.

The zone, located in the city of Ussuriysk near the border of Heilongjiang Province in northeast China, is one of six zones to be established in foreign countries —  the others are Zambia, Mauritius, Thailand, Pakistan and Cambodia.

The Ussuriysk Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone, approved by Russian and Chinese commercial authorities, covers 2.28 million sq meters.

More than 60 large and medium-sized domestic and overseas companies specializing in a large variety of manufacturing and processing industries, including shoes, apparel, timber, household appliances, automobiles and components, are expected to set up offices and plants in the zone.

Companies in the zone will enjoy preferential tax policies and comprehensive legal and logistics services including business registration, customs and land procedures and visa applications.

The first phase costing RMB400 million ($53 million) has seen production lines of six Chinese enterprises go into full operation, making shoes, wood and furniture.
Source: China.Com

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