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

Map of Zone Lvshunkou

China Knowledge reports that the Dalian Port Group has signed an agreement with Dalian’s Lvshunkou district government to jointly develop Yangtouwa and Double-Island Bay areas.

(Note Lvshunkou was previously known as Port Arthur and an alternative spelling is Lushunkou)

Under the new agreement, Dalian Port Group, which operates China’s largest crude oil port, will increase its investment in the planning, construction, operation of Lvshunkou district.

A new venture, named Dalian Double Island Investment and Development, will be established to expedite the construction of an integrated port project and an industrial zone nearby.
Source: Seatrade Asia Online

On the third day in the Chinese Lunar New Year of 1998 a software development base was set-up in Youjiacun Village of Dalian.

Ten years later, the software development base at that time has become the famous Dalian Soft Park. Dalian New Soft Park (Hekou Park Zone) of Neusoft Corporation was opened officially earlier this year.

It can hold 10,000 software engineers.

Dalian Tiandi Soft Park has a total investment of RMB15 billion and will be completed in 2017. It will be the first comprehensive community integrating office, residence, entertainment and study function of IT and software industry in China and the Asian-Pacific region. Much, much more HERE.
Source: China Economic Net

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:zones_polyone1.jpg,full,alignright]First, what are Geon compounds? The PolyOne web site tells us:

Geon Vinyl flexible compounds are engineered to deliver excellent elastomeric performance while providing unequaled durability and cost-effectiveness. Geon Vinyl flexible compounds can be injection-molded, blow-molded or extruded.
PolyOne’s standard products have a hardness range from 45A to 70D, specific gravity from 1.10 g/cc to 1.50 g/cc, and a service temperature range from -50°C to 90°C.

In simpler terms Geon is a registered trade mark of the PolyOne Corporation and is used in the production of vinyl products ranging from gaskets to furniture, from food packing to cable wrapping.

The new PolyOne Plant is in the Chiling Industrial Zone in Houje Town, Dongguan, in the Guangdong

[photopress:zones_map_donguuan_1_2.jpg,full,alignleft]PolyOne’s Dongguan plant was acquired from Ngai Hing PlastChem, the vinyl compounding subsidiary of Ngai Hing Hong. PolyOne completed the acquisition of the assets and operations in January 2008.

Since the acquisition, PolyOne has modified and upgraded equipment in the facility, trained the staff to produce GeonTM compounds, and enhanced environmental health and safety (’EHS’) conditions to meet Chinese and PolyOne EHS standards.

PolyOne now has six sites in China; the other locations are Shanghai, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Suzhou and Tianjin.
Source: Fibre2Fashion

[photopress:zone_Asia_International.jpg,full,alignright]Construction of the Asia International Furniture Material Trading Center — Asia Star for short — started in 2004.

This mini-zone is in Shunde City, about an hour southwest of Dongguan, a furniture manufacturing hotbed.

It is now home to more than 700 companies occupying some 6.8 million square feet of space. The $290 million project is about 60% complete and is expected to reach some 12 million square feet when it’s completed in 2010. The model in our illustration is used as an illustration by Asia Star and that is our excuse. Looks a lot better than furniture.

According to the developer, Asia Star will eventually house 1,500 materials suppliers and 200 logistics firms offering their services to the industry.

It also will have six administrative buildings, a hotel, an apartment building and an exhibition building for a twice-a-year materials trade show.

The developer is Hechuangying Real Estate, which says it wants to build the facility as a ‘one-stop materials trading platform’ aimed at better serving an estimated 3,000 furniture manufacturers and suppliers in China.

The developers said, ‘The original purpose to set up this trading center is to get a huge a number of manufacturers and material suppliers together and build up an interactive trade platform for the buyer and supplier, so that the material industry could serve the furniture industry.’

[photopress:zones_shunde_city.jpg,full,alignleft] The Asia Star complex will include:

* 2 million square feet for furniture hardware and textiles.
* 1.5 million square feet for logistics companies and related distribution space.
* 1 million square feet for leather and other auxiliary materials.
* About 2 million square feet devoted to the exhibition center and an accompanying business center.

Source: Furniture Today

[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_shenzhen.jpg,full,alignright]One sometimes needs a totally outside view to get an idea of the way that China has changed in the past few decades.

John Eby is managing editor of the Daily News which is the newspaper for Dowagiac which is in Southwestern Michigan. It has population of 6,147. The city name comes from the Potawatomi Indian word meaning, ‘foraging ground’. The illustration at the end of the article is Dowagiac during the rush hour.

John Eby came to visit China and wrote an article on the subject which, in a sense, was replying to an article by Naomi Klein in the May 29 Rolling Stone. Here are parts of Eby’s article, edited somewhat:

I found Shenzhen itself, the laboratory for ‘market Stalinism,’ the most fascinating aspect. There’s an aerial color photo of this almost unimaginably sprawling megacity of 12.4 million people.

The kicker is that it didn’t exist 30 years ago. Guess capitalism works better for the Chinese than Americans these days.

Shenzhen used to be a string of small fishing villages and collectively run rice paddies, traditional temples and rutted dirt roads.

[photopress:zone_dowagiac.jpg,full,alignleft]Then it was chosen as one of China’s ’special economic zones,’ one of just four areas where capitalism would be permitted on a trial basis. Probably because of its proximity to Hong Kong’s port. It expanded and swallowed the surrounding Pearl River delta, now home to 100,000 factories.

Luxury condominiums tower over the city. Many are more than 40 stories high, topped with three-story penthouses.

Many big American players gravitated to Shenzhen, ‘but they look singularly unimpressive next to their Chinese competitors,’ according to Klein.

Klein writes that this is a ‘city of pure commerce, undiluted by history or rooted culture — the crack cocaine of capitalism. It was a force so addictive to investors that the Shenzhen experiment quickly expanded.’

In fact, it swallowed the surrounding Pearl River delta, now home to 100,000 factories.

‘The research complex for China’s telecom giant Huawei, for instance, is so large that it has its own highway exit, while its workers ride home on their own bus line.’

The author is not writing from envy, not condemning. Just expressing his wonder at the amazing success of this special economic zone which started as an experiment.
Source: Daily News

[photopress:zones_jexiang.jpg,full,alignright]Jiaxing, a major industrial center located on the east coast of China, is inviting Indian companies to set up a manufacturing base in the city.

Shen Wenping, vice director, Jiaxing Municipal Bureau of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation said, ‘Around six Indian Companies including Thermax from Pune have set up base in Jiaxing. We are considering setting up an Indian industrial park to enable Indian investment into Jiaxing.’[photopress:zones_jexiang2.jpg,full,alignleft]

Shen Wenping, who was part of a high level delegation led by Weng Kexiong, vice chairman, Jiaxing Municipal Committee of CPPCC that visited Pune, said they were keen on inviting investment either through a JV or investments and were willing to give priority to Indian companies.

Jiaxing has more than 5,000 foreign-funded enterprises with contractual foreign capital of $17.39 billion and actual foreign capital of $10 million.
Source: Financial Express

[photopress:zones_moc_bai.jpg,full,alignright]This is an interesting development and the best way to think about it, perhaps, is that the European Common Union is sort of coming to Asia.

In Viet Nam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved a plan to set up nine additional economic zones along the country’s bordergate region by 2020, bringing the total number of EZs in the country to 30.

[photopress:zones_bordergate_zone_1.jpg,full,alignleft]This is part of a larger economic development plan for the bordergate region up to 2020.

It focuses on sustainable development and long-lasting friendship and political security between Viet Nam’s border provinces and neighbouring provinces in China, Laos and Cambodia.

Nguyen The Dat, head of the zone’s State management team said that another bordergate economic zone on the trans-Asia highway, Moc Bai in southern Tay Ninh Province, also has great potential. (At the moment it is a rather sordid duty free zone for dealers but that first stage will pass. And it is a port city so does not apply in the context of co-operation with China. But the idea of a duty free EZ still applies. )

Located 70km from Ho Chi Minh City and some 170km from Phnom Penh, the 21.3ha zone opened in March, 2006 and has a commercial-industrial area and a duty-free supermarket.

The logical extension of these bordergate EZs is that China may have the equivalent, where applicable, on the other side of the border. Take it that Vietnam comes second after China in manufacturing potential and you can see a supersource emerging along the border areas.
Source:Vietnam News