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West China: Chengdu
Chengdu, located in Southwest China, is the country’s fifth most populous city. It is also one of the most important economic centers and transportation and communication hubs in West China. According to property giant Jones Lang LaSalle, “A large graduate population, relatively low operating costs, and a reputation as the most livable large city in the western region, combined with the professional skills of the Chengdu government in dealing with foreign investment, has placed Chengdu as the current top investment location in inland China.”
Infrastructure
Chengdu is the largest railway hub in Southwest China, linking four trunk railways to the cities of Chongqing, Baoji, Kunming and Daxian. There are four cargo railway stations in Chengdu, of which the Chengdu Eastern Station is the largest in Southwest China. Two metro lines are under construction and are due to open in 2010. Railway lines link Chengdu to ports on the eastern coast such as Shanghai, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Qingdao, and Lianyungang. There are also expressways connecting the city to local ports at Leshan, Luzhou, and Chongqing which are all within 360 kilometers of Chengdu.
The Shuangliu International Airport has direct flights to Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Seoul, Tokyo, Fukuoka, Katmandu, Osaka, Paris, and Kuala Lumpur as well as flights to all major domestic airports. In 2008, it was the busiest airport in West China and the sixth busiest airport nationwide in terms of passenger traffic.
Economy and investment climate
Chengdu is the state-designated trade and finance center for the southwest as well as a communications center. While 2008 numbers have not been released yet, the city’s’ GDP was RMB332.4 billion in 2007, an increase of 15.3 percent from 2006. A report on world cities by the Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 2006 ranked Chengdu 94th globally, 11th among all Chinese cities, and first in West China. Exports totaled US$5.71 billion in 2007, an increase of nearly 38 percent, while imports rose over 35 percent to reach US$3.81. The city utilized US$1.14 billion in 2007, a substantial increase of 50 percent over the amount utilized in 2006.
Chengdu has six pillar industries: high-tech, manufacturing (including aviation technologies), biological engineering and pharmaceuticals, food processing, metallurgy and building materials, and petrochemical processing. The city’s manufacturing industry is driving its economy forward, with major manufacturing products such as automobiles and motorcycle spare parts, aircraft parts, engineering machinery, lathe tools, electrical engineering and electric apparatus, general spare parts, and agricultural machinery.
Chengdu has a strong record at attracting foreign investment, 108 of the world’s Fortune 500 have established branches, research and development centers or affiliated organizations in the city. Intel, the world’s largest chip maker, invested US$525 million in two assembly and testing facilities in the city. Other foreign companies with investments in Chengdu include Nokia, Sony, Toyota, Motorola, Microsoft, Ericsson and Lafarge.
The city is an important base for scientific and technological research and development center. There are 33 universities and technical schools producing around 110,000 students every year, over 2,700 scientific and research institutions based in the city. Chengdu also has 70 institutes, 31 enterprise’s technical centers, six national key laboratories, 31 national centers or bases of professional key laboratories, nine national engineering (technology) research centers and enterprise technical centers. Chengdu has over 1,000 companies engaged in application software development for specific industries as medical care, telecom, finance, education, transportation, insurance, administration and business management.
Development zones
Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone
Chengdu Economic and Technological Development Zone
For assistance with investment or inquiries about Chengdu please contact shanghai@dezshira.com.
