Central China

High-Speed Trains Cut Travel Time to Central China and YRD

Mar. 25 – Two new high-speed railways will slash travel time to Central China and the Yangtze River Delta when they begin operations on April 1.

The two new railways are the Hefei-Wuhan passenger railway and the Shijiazhuang-Taiyuan railway that connects the north and the west. A journey from Wuhan to Shanghai will be cut in half to four hours and 45 minutes while Wuhan to Nanjing will can be made in less than three hours.

The travel time between the capital cities of Hebei and Shanxi provinces will be whittled down to one hour from the previous five hours. On the other hand, a journey from Taiyuan and Beijing will only take three hours, a saving of more than five hours.

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Posted in Central China, East China, Economy and Politics, Shipping & Logistics | Leave a comment

China’s Postal Savings Bank to Play Key Role in Spreading Rural Wealth

postal-savings Feb. 26 – China’s Postal Savings Bank, a relatively obscure yet powerful entity formed in 2007, will be the main infrastructure driver for getting income into rural areas under the country’s economic stimulus plan.

The bank, which was initially capitalized at RMB20 billion, was formed following a restructuring of the State Post Bureau, and consequently possesses some 37,000 branches nationally thanks to its link with China’s postal service. It is now the country’s second largest lender in terms of outlets after the Agricultural Bank of China. In terms of deposits, the bank holds over RMB1.5billion, making it the fifth biggest in assets. Continue reading →

Posted in Central China, Economy and Politics, West China | Leave a comment

China’s Northern and Inland Provinces Recession Free

Central Avenue, Harbin’s pedestrianized shopping center, is booming with many international and Chinese luxury brands and boutiques lining both sides of this historic street

By Chris Devonshire-Ellis and Andy Scott

Jan. 3 – China Briefing and Dezan Shira & Associates staff have spent much of the past few days during the holiday season traveling around China, and especially the inland and Northern provinces, assessing the impact in these secondary locations of the global financial crisis on the local economies.

Still largely disconnected from the international foibles of trade and commerce, the inland and northern provinces of China depend much more on China trade and trade with other markets, such as Russia and Central Asia, that are also themselves largely isolated from the global markets. These areas then, with huge populations and massive territories, represent for China and much of emerging Asia the last bastion of isolationism and protection from the oft rapacious demands of the global economy. As Karl Marx’s “Das Kapital” once again hits the best seller lists in its treatise of the fundamental flaws of capitalism, it is these, largely agrarian and proletarian economies that appear both resilient and dependable in times of international economic strife. Marx would recognize the trends.

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Posted in Central China, Economy and Politics, FDI and Foreign Trade, Northeast China | Leave a comment

Wuhan’s Time Has Come – City Business Overview

Nov. 14 – Wuhan, the central Chinese inland capital city of Hubei province, has been generating interest recently as a major recipient of much of China’s stimulus package and also as an increasingly attractive recipient of foreign investment looking to sell further onto the domestic market. It is the seventh largest city in the country and is strategically placed as a logistics center in central China. Its position on the Yangtze River, with capabilities of handling 40 million tons of cargo annually also makes it attractive as it’s possible to manufacture here and ship downriver to primary markets such as Shanghai.

Certainly, the infrastructure already in place is impressive. Wuhan’s airport, China’s fourth largest, handles 120 flights a day, including to international destinations across Asia such as Japan, Korea, Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong. Its second terminal has just been completed, giving it a capacity of a further 160 routes and annual cargo handling capacity of 320,000 tons when it becomes fully operational in the next two months. Continue reading →

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Manzhouli: China’s Largest Inland Port of Entry

Oct. 7 – Although its name is obscure, Manzhouli is an important gateway for business in Inner Mongolia and receives 60 percent of all of China’s trade to and from Russia and the rest of Eastern Europe.

It is the country’s largest inland port of entry.

Manzhouli borders the Russian city of Zabaykalsk with a free trade zone that allows residents from both sides to cross visa free.

Many Russian citizens have actually purchased property and live on the Chinese side because houses are cheaper and considered to be better made.

The combined population of the two cities is about 400,000, with 250,000 of them living on the Chinese side. Manzhouli, while small in terms of population, is an important gateway to Russia and is fast developing as a trading city.

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Chinese Gov’t Policies to Help Large-scale Agribusiness

July 2 – The Sichuan earthquake is likely to hurt small livestock farms in rural China, with medium-sized to large livestock farms emerging as a new trend says an executive of Thailand’s largest agricultural conglomerate.China’s modernization of the farm sector will affect the key agricultural provinces of Hunan, Hubei, Shanxi, Jiangxi and Anhui says Damrongdej Chalongphuntarat of the CP Group.

Damrongdej, a vice-chairman of Chia Tai Group of Companies, CP’s China arm, says that Beijing implementation of tougher building codes will cover farms, effectively stamping out small-scale farms in the future.

CP Group plans to invest heavily in Sichuan, Hunan and Hubei by adding a chicken slaughterhouse and two animal-feed plants in the next two to three years the Bangkok Post reported. Continue reading →

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June Issue of China Briefing Out Now

June 2 – The June issue of China Briefing magazine is out now and available for download (click on the image – subscription required however this is complimentary).

In this issue we examine China’s central provinces. With costs rising in the manufacturing centers of the South China and the Yangtze River Delta, more and more multinationals are looking at China, not only as an export platform, but a growing market that will play key role in global sales and marketing strategies. We take a look at the processing trade restrictions that are causing many manufacturers to move, how Central China is increasing spending on infrastructure and promoting foreign investment, and investment strategies more and more multinationals are using in regards to China. We also highlight future trends in the six provinces of Central China and take a look at five regional second- and third-tier cities in our continuing series 3TC.

Included in this issue:

Central China’s Location Reconsidered
Government Incentives
Inland China Investment Strategies
The Future of China’s Central Provinces
The second- and third-tier cities of Shenyang, Hefei, Huizhou, Zhengzhou and Kunming

Posted in Business, Central China | Leave a comment

Central China Expo promotes inbound investment

By Andy Scott

WUHAN, April 28 – Expo Central China 2008 came to a close today in the city of Wuhan, the provincial capital of Hubei province. The third of its kind, the expo is an opportunity for the Central China provinces of Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi and Shanxi to attract investor attention to a region that has historically lagged in development behind China’s coastal provinces.

As investor sentiment has waned for China’s coastal regions where the rising costs of doing business are beginning to force large corporations to rethink their China strategy, the Central China region, and especially Wuhan with its perfectly centered location in China, is looking to take advantage. Long considered a secondary market, the completion of the new, expanded Wuhan Tianhe International airport as well as the continued dredging of the Yangtze downriver is turning Wuhan into destination for foreign investment. Continue reading →

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