Wuxi Little Swan

Washing machine maker Wuxi Little Swan will move its offices and production facilities from the urban district to Wuxi High-tech Development Zone before June 2009.

The company is applying to three banks for RMB700 million credit lines to enlarge its capital base and ensure normal operation and production. The three banks are China Merchants Bank, CITIC Industrial Bank and China Minsheng Banking Corporation.

Jiangsu Little Swan Group has 33 subsidiary companies.

Wuxi Little Swan is the largest domestic producer of washing machines and the group also produces air conditioners, refrigerators, dishwashers, dryers and industrial washing machines.
Source: Trading Markets

Solar energy panels

That is a grabber of a headline and cries out for explanation. So CTDC is China Technology Development Group and works in solar energy and is starting to make important parts.

The company’s first volume manufacturing line is located in the China Merchants Zhangzhou Development Zone near Xiamen.

It will have an annual run rate of 70,000–80,000 plates when it reaches full capacity and there is an intent to expand that capacity. The key to these solar devices is to increase their efficiency and lower their cost of manufacturing.

This development in Zhangzhou is designed to do just that.
Source: PV Tech

Huntsman plastic product. And your guess is as good as ours as to what it is.

Huntsman Corporation, a leading global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated chemicals, has opened its Asia Pacific Technology Centre (ATC) in Shanghai’s Minhang Development Zone.

The new Centre will initially accommodate research and technical experts from Huntsman’s Polyurethanes and Performance Products divisions, with the number of specialists expected to expand rapidly over the next few years.

Don Stanutz, President of Huntsman Performance Products said, ‘We plan to develop a highly trained team of home-grown technical specialists at the ATC which is best in class. Huntsman will continue to invest in this facility, bringing in new people and equipment, further developing its capability.’
Source: Fibre2Fashion

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

Bosch and Siemens

Bosch and Siemens Home Appliances Group (BSH) (which is two great consumer brands as one company) is speeding up its second round of investment in China, thirteen years after it first started operations in China.

As the world’s number three, and Europe’s number one white goods manufacturer, BSH shows great interest in independent development in the Chinese market.

The company has decided on $160 million of additional investments in its expansion projects.

On March 9, 2005, the BSH Industrial Park laid a foundation stone in the Nanjing Economic and Technological Development Zone which was completed a year later. In April 2006, BSH’s largest top freezer project around the world broke earth in Chuzhou City of central Anhui Province.

In 2007, the company built a plant in the Nanjing Industrial Park, producing 800,000 big-volume tumble washing machines a year. As of the end of 2007, BSH’s investments in the country had reached $500 million.

The new investment will be to build a a tumble washing machine plant as well as an electric water heater plant in the industrial park.
Source: Trading Markets

Stamford-based Chilton Investment has opened offices in Chengdu to serve its major business zone.

In March 2006, the Ministry of Information Industry approved the establishment of the National (Chengdu) Electronic Component Park within the Chengdu Economic and Technological Development Zone. It can already boast companies such as Intel, IBM, Nokia, Microsoft and Xerox.

Chengdu High-Tech zone

Chilton, a manager of alternative investments with nearly $8 billion in assets, will file an application with Chinese authorities for permission for its Beijing subsidiary to operate a branch office there.

The office will serve as a central hub for Chilton’s strategy to pursue investment opportunities in western China — a region the firm said has tremendous growth potential and is under-served by investment specialists.

On the western edge of the Sichuan Basin, Chengdu was about 48 miles from the epicenter of the earthquake that killed more than 4,000 people in May, but the city sustained little damage.
Source: Greenwich Time

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

Beijing Yanqi Economic Development Area is now working with Beijing Great Wall investment Development to increase the number of companies within the zone. All the necessary facilities to accommodate the establishment and growth of business are already in place. It is now ready to expand.

The zone was established in April of 1992 with the approval of Beijing Municipal Government. In December 2000 the government decided to accredit this area as one of the key industrial development zones under the direct jurisdiction of the municipality.

The area has a total planned area of 1,493 hectares and incudes the Beijing Yanqi Economic Development Zone Beijing Fengxiang Science & Technology Development Zone and Beijing Jingwei Industrial Zone. It is 55 kilometers drive from the urban district, 35 kilometers from Beijing Capital International Airport, and 170 kilometers from Tianjin Harbor.

So far more than 300 production enterprises have based their businesses in the area including more than 70 foreign owned enterprises coming from 17 countries or regions.

The Administrative Committee of Beijing Yanqi Economic Development Area has authorized Beijing Great Wall investment Development to develop, sell and transfer the right of land use of the zone.
Source: Invest Beijing

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

The port city of Dalian has launched a set of new policies to attract more IT talent to the region.

Currently, there are over 60,000 IT professionals working in more than 700 IT companies in Dalian.

Xia Deren, mayor of Dalian, said, ‘If we can achieve an annual output value of 100 billion yuan in 2018, we will need 300,000 to 500,000 IT professionals. Obviously, there is a huge talent shortage.’

Dalian intends to build public facilities for training institutions, construct apartments for IT workers in the city, and provide subsidies for senior professionals in the industry. All to allow the further development of the Dalian Hi-tech Industrial Zone.

Xia Deren, mayor of Dalian, said, ‘The software and IT service outsourcing sector is developing rapidly in Dalian. However, the lack of talent is becoming a serious problem which restricts this development.’

The city’s software sector has on average seen an annual 68.2% rise over the last decade. Last year, its software sales revenue reached RMB21.5 billion ($3.14 billion), while the exports rose to $720 million.

Xia Deren described the initiative as ‘an extra-ordinary measure taken by the local government’.
Source: China Daily