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

Zhangmu (elevation 2,300 meters), also known as Kasa, lies on a mountainside 10km (6 miles) inland from the Friendship Bridge that spans the Bhotekoshi (the Sun Koshi) River. It is, as it were, on the extreme left of China. Yet it is, in a sense, a zone.

According to an agreement between the Chinese and Nepalese governments, people living within 30 kilometres (18 miles) of the border may cross the border freely. Every day, hundreds of Chinese and Nepalese merchants conduct business under this agreement. Local Sherpa lease their houses to the merchants thus sharing in the profit of the border trade.

Thus this small town has become a major trading post between Tibet and Nepal. The booming border trade attracts merchants from inland China, Tibet and Nepal. The single narrow zigzag street of Zhangmu makes transport somewhat difficult.

Nepalese merchants export rice, flour, pepper, vegetables and perfumes while Chinese merchants sell wool, tea, salt and Tibetan medicine.

A free trade market formed spontaneously near the Friendship Bridge about 8 years ago and is still developing today.

Zhangmu is going to undergo major construction to meet the demands of the booming tourism and border trade.  Zhangmu Hotel, the town’s only hotel, will be rebuilt and expanded.

Within the next 5 years the local government plans to build a 2,220-metre (7,280 feet) roadway to improve traffic flow.

Is this a development zone? Perhaps not within the official meaning of the act for it was not planned. But it is a free trade zone for all that.
Source: China Travel Tours

Saipan in the Marianas has problems of its own and is working on the idea of special economic zones. In doing that it is getting China to help. In a newspaper article on the subject comes a summary of the situation and a quick history of China’s zones:

Between 1980 and 1984, China established special economic zones (SEZs) in Shantou, Shenzhen, and Zhuhai in Guangdong Province and Xiamen in Fujian Province and designated the province of Hainan a special economic zone. Early Chinese business concerns in the CNMI are traceable to these zones.

In 1984, China opened 14 coastal cities to overseas investment in Dalian, Qinhuangdao, Tianjin, Yantai, Qingdao, Lianyungang, Nantong, Shanghai, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Zhanjiang, and Beihai.

In 1985, it established more economic zones in the Liaodong Peninsula, Hebei Province (which surrounds Beijing and Tianjin), Shandong Peninsula, Yangtze River Delta, Xiamen-Zhangzhou-Quanzhou Triangle in southern Fujian Province, Pearl River Delta, and Guangxi.

In 1990 the State Council opened the Pudong New Zone in Shanghai to overseas investment.

Economic characteristics of these decisions are represented as ‘4 principles’:

* Primary reliance on foreign capital on construction
* Formation of local-foreign joint ventures and partnerships first but allowing wholly foreign-owned enterprises
* Export-oriented products
* Resource utilization, production and distribution activities are driven by market forces

It goes on from there to explain how China has now opened what is effectively a zone in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Source: Saipan Tribune

Development zones are named according to their different focuses, like ‘economic and technological development zone’, ‘economic development zone’, ‘high-tech industries development zone’ and ’science and technology park’.

There are also development zones at different levels depending on their supervising institutions, ranging from ‘national’ development zones to ‘provincial’ and ‘municipal’ ones. Development zones are often divided into several sections.

The central government has organized several campaigns to check development zones and the unqualified ones or those with poor performances are cancelled.

* From July 2003 to December 2006, the number of development zones were reduced from 6,866 to 1,568.
* Their total area was cut from 38,600 square kilometers to 9,949 square kilometers.

In the Law on Urban and Rural Planning approved by the lawmakers in October 2007, it was stipulated that no development zone should be set-up outside the established plan for the city layout.

Meanwhile, the urban infrastructure of the Chinese cities has been stepped up in the last three decades. And most of them are now very investor-friendly. Much more on this HERE.

The author, Sun Shiwen, is a professor at College of Architecture and Urban Planning at Tongji University.
Source: China View

[photopress:Bohai_zone.jpg,full,alignright]Anton Smitsendonk has written a Jamestown China Brief, ‘Guarded Walls within the Chinese Stock Market’ so he is not inexperienced. The author is National Co-ordinator for the UK-China Sustainable Development Dialogue. In his personal capacity he has written a review of China so his views do not necessarily reflect those of the UK government.

Briefly he says that three decades ago China was isolated and struggling, with poverty rates on a par with Malawi.

Today, China has joined the premier league: China’s economy has grown nine-fold to become the fourth largest economy in the world (a reasonable appreciation of the yuan would propel China in to second place, ahead of Japan).

A staggering 300 million people have been lifted out of poverty in this time. China now holds $1.75 trillion in its coffers, and has become the number-one trading nation and destination of foreign direct investment.

This is sometimes known as the ‘China Development Model’ and it is the subject of intense scrutiny and, sometimes, intense envy.

There is little doubt hat the focus on export-oriented growth and gradual liberalization of prices, combined with an outward-looking foreign investment regime were instrumental to high and sustained economic growth.

A high savings rate, upfront investments in large-scale infrastructure development, rapid urbanisation and a good investment climate were also undoubtedly key elements of economic success.

That is the good news. Now the criticisms which are mild.

The suggestion is that the term “China model” implies at least three things: success, replicability and deliberate design. On all three counts there is, perhaps, room still for healthy debate.

[photopress:zone2.jpg,full,alignleft]First the idea is presented that as an economic miracle it was not that great although it is difficult to think of a major country that did such an economic turnaround in such a short space of time. Then there are ecological problems. Finally, the ‘China model’ has still left some people, some areas, poor.

The suggestion is made, almost certainly correctly, that it faces formidable challenges going forward: how it addresses these will be the real test of its success.
Source: Bangkok Post

[photopress:zone_sez.jpg,full,alignright]A researcher at distribution warehousing giant ProLogis says leaders in Western nations can learn from China’s use of special business zones.

The special economic zones, first set up around port cities by the People’s Republic nearly 30 years ago, have been a resounding success. Last year, merchandise exports from SEZs totaled $1.2 trillion, trailing only Germany and the U.S.

Leonard Sahling, Prologis’ first vice president of research and an expert on trade zones said although zones like Shenzhen are well-known to executives at multinational corporations, few outsiders truly understand how the sites operate.

In China, the zones typically include spacious roadways and modern infrastructure and operate as relatively insular communities. Some even have their own worker housing.

Leonard Sahling, said, ‘They’re like cities that have all been master-planned. They’re beautiful. One looks like a Disney park.’

Tenants can range from Chinese importers, exporters or manufacturers to American and European companies. But Asian-based businesses, particularly those from Japan and Taiwan, dominate.

Some of the special districts are designated economic trading zones (ETZs) and others economic and technological development zones (ETDZs).

Five of the ETZs are treated as being ‘outside of China,’ thus eliminating levies such as value-added taxes and customs duties.

[photopress:zone_sez2.jpg,full,alignleft]There are 54 ETDZs. Foreign enterprises establishing operations in these zones are granted tax breaks, the ability to repatriate profits and capital investments, below-market lease rates for land, government financing for hiring and training, employee housing and various customs exemptions.

‘I think China has proved that economic reform through the use of trade zones can play a huge part in a nation’s economic success,’ Leonard Sahling said.
Source: Financial Week

[photopress:Zone_bridge_1_1.jpg,full,alignright]Hangzhou Wan Bay New Zone is now connected in a logical way with the Ningbo Economic and Technological Development Zone.

First the Ningbo Economic zone was a major success.

Now, the bridge, which spans the mouth of the Yangtze River from Jiaxing — an hour’s drive southwest of Shanghai, to Cixi — an hour’s drive east of Hangzhou, bring the two closer together.

The Hangzhou Wan Bay New Zone at the base of the Cixi-end of the bridge is an amalgamation of several zones, including the Zhejiang Cixi Economic Development Zone, the Zhejiang Cixi Export Processing Zone.

Established in 2001 the total area of the New Zone is 145 square kilometers.

At the moment it is like a dead village witing to spring to life. Even the Export Processing Zone, which had been established in 2005, is without companies.

[photopress:Zone_bridge_3.jpg,full,alignleft]Cixi itself is about the size of Suzhou City, 1.2 million.

Cixi has become, in the theory, the Plastics Capital of China; along with Yuyao and Ningbo creating a Plastics Triangle of production capability. Now that thought it about to become a reality. This is a new Zone with excellent prospects simply because of the bridge. It makes the logistics feasible, affordable.

This will the zone to watch for growth. The figures this year should be little less than startling.
Source: This is China!

[photopress:zones_Prologis_1.JPG,full,alignright]ProLogis, the world’s largest owner, manager and developer of distribution facilities, has released a new research report entitled, China’s Special Economic Zones and National Industrial Parks — Door Openers to Economic Reform.

The report is long and comprehensive and it is worth going to the Prologis site, filling in a form and getting a free copy.

This report highlights the key role played by China’s Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and Economic and Technological Development Zones (ETDZs) as catalysts in the country’s economic transformation.

China unveiled wide-ranging economic reforms in 1979, and its economy has flourished during the subsequent 30 years. The report credits China’s SEZs and ETDZs for attracting foreign companies to invest in China and thereby nurturing China’s economic revitalization.
For a copy of the report on China’s Special Economic Zones click HERE.
Source: Earth Times

[photopress:zones_Dalian_FTZ.jpg,full,alignright]Dalian Free Trade Zone is said to be the only one of its type in Northeast China. Although it is located inside China, Dalian Free Trade Zone is considered to be outside Chinese Customs territory. Thus any goods that enter China through Dalian Free Trade Zone are not assessed Customs duties until after they leave the zone for China consumption.

Companies inside the Zone benefit from simplified customs procedures, liberal foreign exchange privileges and absence of export quotas and other requirements on imports.

Companies, both domestic and foreigh, can store, exhibit or process goods with the zone and thus defer, reduce or even eliminate duties on imported goods.

The Dalian Free Trade Zone has three main functions:[photopress:zones_Dalian_FTZ2.jpg,full,alignleft]

1) International trade and bonded exhibition for imports.
2) Storage, distribution and logistics.
3) Manufacturing, processing and packaging.

There are 7.3 kilometers of roads built within the Zone and trees and grass have been planted on 53 thousand square meters. There are 42 km of underground pipes of all kinds.

Of 2,183 firms registered with Dalian Free Trade Zone, 816 are foreign-funded.
Source: China-Dalian.com

[photopress:zones_Pakistan.jpg,full,alignright]In starting its concept of special economic zones back in the seventies China was thinking inside the country. It was planning the industrialization of China.

Especially since the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee in 1978, the PRC government reformed the national economic setup.

During the 1980s, the PRC passed several stages, ranging from the establishment of special economic zones and open coastal cities and areas, and designating open inland and coastal economic and technology development zones. It is a process the continues but is undoubtedly a massive success, albeit with attendant problems which are being dealt with in an orderly manner. The success of these zones has not escaped the attention of other countries.

In Peshawar, the administrative center of Pakistan, Provincial Minister for Industries Syed Ahmed Hussain Shah said a ‘national trade corridor’ would be established on N-35, Malakand, in the name of China City to enhance trade with China.

He said the establishment of the proposed ‘Reconstruction Opportunity Zones’ (ROZ) in the border regions of Pakistan and Afghanistanwould improve the provincial economy, generate employment opportunities, and help stem terrorism in the area.

Meanwhile Sindh Minister for Industries and Commerce in Pakistan, Rauf Siddiqui has suggested establishing a 100km long industrial zone on the land lying between Karachi and Hyderabad.

Syed Ahmed Hussain Shah said that to eliminate rising unemployment in the country and strengthening local economy, we had to convince foreign investors including China and other countries to invest in Pakistan.

Dr Junaid Ahmed, Advisor to the Finance Ministry called on the government to establish Pak-China, Pak-Korea, Pak-Iran, Pak-Arab Economic Zones, in which industrialists from these countries could be provided opportunities to invest. When China started special economic zones it started a world revolution.
Sources: The News and Trading Markets.