A panel of Chinese senior government officials have been addressing investment and career opportunities at the Hyatt Regency, San Francisco Airport.

Sun Xuewei, deputy director of the General Office in the Guangzhou Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone (seen in our illustration), has helped entrepreneurs establish and grow their businesses for more than a decade. He was one of the main speakers on ‘Investment, Development and Entrepreneurship in China’.

He made presentations on high-tech development zones across China and favorable policies for attracting entrepreneurs.

Two other officials who gave presentations were Wu Xiaohua, director of the Department of Research Project Management at the Academy of Macroeconomic Research, a section of the cabinet-level National Development and Reform Commission responsible for providing economic guidelines for decision-makers in China.

The event was sponsored by the Chinese Overseas Exchange Association.

According to Manufacturing and Technology News in 2006, China surpassed the United States as the world’s largest exporter, reaching $404 billion compared to U.S.$367 billion. China’s manufactured exports are expected to more than double those of the United States by 2011. Its economic boom has built up $1.2 trillion in currency reserves, the largest in the world. None of which negates the need to bring scientific and technological co-operation between the two countries. This seminar was part of that process.

Source: Asian Week

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

China has named 30 new state-level high-tech industrial bases which brings it to a total of 65.

The announcement was made by Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan (seen in our illustration) in Beijing when he awarded the State-level High-tech Industrial Bases to 30 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xi’an and Tianjin.

The 30 bases include six that are multi-purpose and 24 that specialize separately in civil aviation, new energy resources, microelectronics, information and biology.

It is generally accepted that the high-tech bases have played an important role in transforming the economic growth of China and upgrading the industrial structure. Moving, as it were, from a total dependence on agriculture and fossil fuel burning heavy industry to relatively clean and light power usage high tech.

Last year, the output of the high-tech sector was RMB1.91 trillion yuan ($269 billion), 7.8% of China’s gross domestic product.

Meanwhile, high-tech exports came to $347.8 billion, nearly 30% of the nation’s total exports.

The industrial output and exports had risen at average annual rates of 21.5% and 37.7%, for the seven years leading up to 2007.
Source: Window of China

Chemical and polluting companies in the Guangdong provincial capital will be moved out of urban areas over the next eight years, according to Gan Xin, the city’s deputy mayor who was speaking in Guangzhou.

Gan Xin said the government will provide about RMB200 million ($28 million) to help the firms relocate and build new factories for them in 11 industrial development zones in Zengcheng, Huadu, Conghua and Nansha districts, which are far from the city’s urban areas.

He said, ‘In total, 279 firms will be moved, 119 of which will go before 2010.’

The move is part of the city’s urban reconstruction plan which was launched in December.

Those to be moved include a number of large-scale, State-owned firms such as the Guangzhou Paper Group and Guangzhou Baiyunshan Jigong Pharmaceutical.

The companies to be moved were chosen because they were violating national and local environmental protection regulations relating to emissions, sewage, noise and solid waste, and seriously affecting people’s living conditions.

Van Xin said companies that correct their polluting habits within a set period of time will be exempted.

Of the 119 firms to be relocated by 2010, 48 of them are chemical companies, while 53 are State-owned enterprises. A further 160 companies will be moved out of the urban district by 2015, 59 of them chemical firms.
Source: China View