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.

An amazing history of special and economic zones has been put online.

1978. The Chinese government embarked on a policy of opening to the outside world in a planned way.
1980, China started establishing 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.
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.
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.
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. In this way, a chain of open cities extending up the Yangtze River valley, with Shanghai’s Pudong as the “dragon head,” has been formed.
1992. Since this date 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.

More. much more, by clicking on Source.
Source: China in Brief

China in Brief has an article which is, in effect, a guide to special economic zones.

It states that in 1978 the Chinese government embarked on a policy of opening to the outside world in a planned way and step by step.
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 (seen in our illustration), Qinhuangdao, Tianjin, Yantai, Qingdao, Lianyungang, Nantong, Shanghai, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Zhanjiang and Beihai — to overseas investment.
Then, beginning 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 government decided to open the Pudong New Zone in Shanghai to overseas investment, and opened more cities in the Yangtze River valley.
In this way, a chain of open cities extending up the Yangtze River valley, with Shanghai’s Pudong as the ‘dragon head,’ was formed.
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.

As these open areas adopt different preferential policies, they play the dual roles of ‘windows’ in developing the foreign-oriented economy, generating foreign exchanges through exporting products and importing advanced technologies and as ‘radiators’ in accelerating inland economic development.

The article which you can get by clicking on Source is an excellent basic guide.
Source: China in Brief

Chengdu will host the first leg of the 13th International IC-China Conference & Exhibition, the largest semiconductor event in China, on the last two days of this month. This will be at the Chengdu New International Exhibition and Convention Center and it underlines the fact the city is a major electronics hub in West China.

Chengdu in Sichuan Province has a population of 10,597,000, which makes Chengdu the fifth largest city in China in terms of population, following Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin and Chongqing.

(To get this into perspective there is only one city in Britain with a population over one million and that is London. And while New York has eight million odd — not as many as Chengdu but trying hard — there are only nine cities in the United States with populations over one million. By any standards Chengdu is one of the major cities of the world although many Westerners look blank when you mention its name.)

Some quick facts:

Chengdu Hi-tech Zone was initiated in 1988 and ratified as a state-ranked hi-tech industrial development zone in 1991.
With a planned area of 82 km2, the Zone consists of the south zone and west zone.
Chengdu Hi-tech Zone south zone was the major starting industrial area of the Hi-tech Zone.
Chengdu Hi-tech Zone west zone with a planned area of 35 km2. This is the international manufacturing base of the Hi-tech Zone. The park is focused on the microelectronics-oriented IT industries, pharmaceutical industries based on modernized traditional medicine and precision mechanical industries characterized with advanced technology.
Sichuan Chengdu Export Processing Zone (EPZ) was the first state-ranked EPZ in west China.
Chengdu’s Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone houses at least 30 Fortune 500 companies and 12,000 domestic companies, including China’s own Lenovo. Chip giant Intel has one of its IC assembly plants in Chengdu. Intel’s rival AMD is set to open an R&D center in this city. Other multinational tech companies with presence there include Nokia, Motorola, Microsoft, Alcatel and IBM.

There is an interesting YouTube about the zone. Click here.
Source: EE Times Asia

The first phase of Tianjin Dongjiang Bonded Harbor Area, China’s largest free trade harbor, came into operation on December 11. This is the bonded harbor area, which covers an area of 4 sq km. It includes warehouses, container terminals and processing and logistics zones, and involved an investment of RMB6.6 billion ($906.59 million).

The rest of the 6-sq-km area is under development and is due to be operational by 2010.

Xu Fu, a professor at the Tianjin-based Nankai University, said, ‘The harbor area is sort of an engine that could drive up the regional economy and business in Tianjin, especially the Tianjin Binhai New Area.’

In 1994, the Tianjin government proposed the idea of the Tianjin Binhai New Area, and the central government approved it as the nation’s third regional economy facilitator, after the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and Pudong New District in Shanghai.

Tianjin Port is now China’s fourth-largest and the sixth-largest worldwide.

In 2006, it handled 258 million tons in cargo. It plans to increase its cargo and container handling capacity up to 400 million tons and 12 million standard containers, TEUs, by 2010.

Professor Xu Fu said, ‘In China, the idea of bonded harbor areas comes at an opportune time.’

Some experts believe that compared to tariff-free zones, bonded harbor areas provide higher quality and more cost-effective services to exporters and importers because harbor areas, as their name suggests, are built much closer to ports. They are also equipped with tariff-free logistics parks, export processing bases and commodity showrooms.
Source: China Daily

Research and Markets, which claims to be the world’s largest market research resource with 382,776 reports, has published The Survey of China’s Innovative Hi-tech Development Zones.

With the establishment of the Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park (seen in our illustration), in 1988 , China’s Hi-Tech Development Zones (HTDZs), after 20 years’ development, have gradually entered a mature development period.With the unprecedented economical prosperity and the significant impact of information technology, HTDZs faces both new opportunities and new challenges.In China, the traditional Science and Technology Park programming method can not satisfy the demand of the new economical situation, therefore it is necessary to introduce new thoughts and new methods to deal with the challenges, while at the same time seizing the development opportunities.Faced with the increasingly fierce competition in the economic globalization era, independent innovations now have been elevated to national strategy, for the biggest developing country, China.In 2007, China’s Hi-Tech Development Zones eleventh five-year plan outline was formulated and promulgated, marking the coming of a new development stage of HTDZs, with clearer targets.According to the outline, the development of HTDZ should follow ‘Six Principles’, realize ‘Five Changes’, achieve ‘Four Promotions’ and build up ‘Three Types of Zones’ within the Eleventh Five-Year period. 

The report The Survey of China’s Hi-tech Development Zone covers most of the information that exists on technological parks. It costs $3,687, which, while expensive, is not out of line with the price of similar reports.
Source: Research and Markets

Danube Building Materials, a leader in the construction, building materials, and shop fitting industry, has announced that it has invested $15 million towards the formation of the Lianyungang Donghai Danube Wood Products in China, as a part of the company’s international expansion plans.

The move involved the construction of three new manufacturing facilities in the Punan Industrial Economic Development Zone in Lianyungang Port, which the company expects to generate $50 million in additional revenues. The first batch of China-made products are expected to arrive to the Middle East by early 2008.

Danube established an office in Shanghai in 2002, which was shortly followed by the launch of a liaison office in Guangzhou.

The rapid growth of Danube’s operations has earned the Dubai-based manufacturer an export license from the customs department of China, which has paved the way for the formation of the Lianyungang Donghai Danube Wood Products company.

Spanning 50,000 square feet, the industrial unit comprises three facilities including a Melamine MDF pressing plant, a Melamine impregnation line, and a backing panel pressing plant and the decor ply production line, all of which have been constructed within a six month period.
Source: Ali Bawa

Pakistan and China are about to conclude three important agreements for promotion of investment, trade, road and rail links.

The first agreement relates to laying railway line from Gwadar port oil city to China. The second is to double the Karakuram Highway to enhance the land link of Gwadar Port with China. The third is to put aside 50 square kilometers for the building of a duty free zone.

Gwadar is located on the southwestern coast of Pakistan, close to the Strait of Hormuz on the Persian Gulf. More than 13 million bbl/d of oil pass through the Strait.

It is strategically located between three increasingly important regions: the oil-rich Middle East, heavily populated South Asia and the economically emerging and resource-laden region of Central Asia.

Note, however, in 2007, the government of Pakistan handed over port operations to PSA Singapore for 25 years, and gave it the status of a Tax Free Port for the following 40 years. This makes total Chinese cooperation possible but complicated

During the forthcoming visit of the Pakistan caretaker prime minister Mohammedmian Soomro to China reports suggest there will be agreement on the the setting up of special economic Zones (SEZ) at Gwadar Port. The Chinese ministry has estimated that this zone can attract Chinese investment of around $13 billion.

The Balochistan government has been asked to identify state land for development of projects at Gwadar out of which 50 square kilometers land will be allocated to Chinese developers for setting up the special economic zone.
Source: Pakistan Daily Times

Volvo is expected to double the size of its parts storage in China.

Volvo Parts (Shanghai) now has a 4,600-square meter warehouse in Shanghai Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone in addition to an adjacent 1,000 square meter area.

The company plans to expand a further 1,800 square meters in Waigaoqiao area in northeast Shanghai from April and another 5,000 square meters coverage is also under consideration.

Volvo Parts general manager Lu Zhonghang said, ‘China is a strategic market for Volvo worldwide thanks to its unexpectedly strong growth.’

The parts company in Shanghai is Volvo’s third largest parts base in Asia. It supplies 14,000 kinds of parts mainly for Volvo trucks for the domestic market in addition to marine engines, and industrial engines and construction equipment.

Volvo Parts (Shanghai) reported its sale revenue had an average annual growth of 50%.
Source: Shanghai Daily

Fengpu is in the Fengxian District of the South Shanghai and is one of the three key industrial parks in Shanghai. Historically Fengxian District used to be the industrial base of mechanism, electric, telecommunication and electron industries so that the talents and skills were already there.

In 2003, the State Council approved the Export Processing Zone in the Industrial Park. This is unique in that it possesses the municipal level industrial park and the state level export processing zone rolled into one.

Shanghai Fengpu Industrial Park is 33.38 square kilometers, including the 3-square-kilometer Export Processing Zone. During its ten years development it has stayed closed to its origins with its main industries being electronic and information industry, modern biology and medicine industry. There are about 130 foreign enterprises in the park as well as many major Chinese companies.

And it is probably going to become both larger and more important as a southward development which takes in Fengpu Industrial Park is the main direction of Shanghai’s economic strategy layout. Thus the investment the Da Xiao Yang Shan Deepwater Wharf and the Caojing Chemical Zone located in South Shanghai.

In a sense the park is based in an area of industry of yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Our illustration shows that there is a total of 56 kilometers of high quality commuter roads within the park. All the roads have 4 fast lanes and 2 slow lanes.
Source: Fengpu Park