Sept. 30 - Changzhou, a second-tier city nestled between Nanjing and Suzhou on China’s east coast, is beginning to bloom into a bustling manufacturing hub. Two hours by train from Shanghai, the city offers foreign investors competitive skilled labor, reasonable land costs, and a foreign-investor-friendly local government offering manufacturers who want to expand or relocate in China a more affordable alternative than Shanghai.

In 2007, the booming city boasted a GDP of US$25.8 billion and a GDP per capita of over US$7,000. Changzhou’s pillar industries include machinery, electronics, information technology, renewable energy, advanced materials and bio-pharmaceuticals. Machinery is this manufacturing city’s primary industry. Changzhou is an important base for rail and metro equipment, power transmission, distribution equipment as well as agricultural and construction equipment. (more…)

Sept. 26 - China recently implemented several incentive programs to attract talent to the Chinese financial services sector. Local authorities in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen have introduced new measures to attract financial institutions to set up in their jurisdictions.

In Shanghai, financial institutions based in Pudong will benefit from a new incentive program. Security houses, banks and insurance companies as well as qualified individuals such as senior executives, individuals with managerial roles, and professionals with extended experience (three years or more) working for a financial institution also stand to benefit from the incentives.

These incentives include: (more…)

Aug. 26 - Located to the northeast of the Xiaoshan district of Hangzhou and sitting along the south bank of the Qiantang River, the Linjiang Industrial Zone (LjIZ) was built in 2003 as a provincial-level zone with an area of 74.31 square kilometers.

According to its development plan, the LjIZ was established to meet the need for land lacking in other zones. Another objective is to lay the primary infrastructure for the future urban expansion of the Xiaoshan district.

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Aug. 12 - Officials from the Zhejiang provincial development and reform commission assured that while companies in the region were suffering from financial difficulties, it was not as grave as previously reported in the media.

“Private firms in our province did suffer a reduction in profit, tight liquidity and a low level of creativity,” Liu Ting, deputy director of the Zhejiang provincial development and reform commission, told Xinhua.

Zhejiang province is home to 203 firms included in the country’s top 500 private companies. Businesses active in the export industry have been feeling the pressure from tighter currency policy, rising prices of raw material and changes in tax policies.

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By Marco Ferrari

July 31 – As first tier cities like Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou have become more and more crowded, investors have started seeking out new developing industrial areas that can offer greater opportunities and better conditions. Changzhou, located in the southern part of Jiangsu province, and sitting between the two metropolitan cities of Shanghai and Nanjing, is attracting a new wave of foreign investment.

Established in 1992, the Changzhou National Hi-Tech District (CND) is the major development zone in Changzhou. It lies to the north of the city, bordering the Yangtze River in the north and the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway and Beijing-Shanghai railway in the south. Thanks to the ISO14001 certificate, designed to help organizations worldwide manage environmental risk and impact, the CND has attracted many overseas investors. So far, over 10,000 enterprises, mostly from Europe and the United States, have registered in the high-tech district, of which 5,000 are industrial enterprises and about 1,000 are overseas-invested companies. (more…)

SHANGHAI, July 30 –The municipal government of Shanghai has announced new regulations in an effort to urge more top multinational companies to establish regional headquarters in the city.

The regulations will qualify a newly registered company to get funding from the Shanghai government during its start-up period and preferential rental policy. In addition, it will allow high-level foreign managers to apply for permanent residency status.

These companies will also be given expedited service in terms of work permits for both their foreign and domestic employees. To qualify as a regional headquarters, the company should have the comprehensive functions of operation management, capital management, research and development, sales, logistics and support service.

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By Jean-Charles Briand

NINGBO, July 29 - The Ningbo National Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone, located northeast of the city center and to the west of the Beilun District and the Ningbo port, serves as a powerful instrument for Ningbo’s shift from a single export-oriented model to that of a more comprehensive economy.

NBHTZ, which covers an area of 18.9 square kilometers, was created in 1999 and upgraded to a state level zone in January 2007. In line with these policies, NBHTZ has succeeded in bringing together more than 2,000 high-tech companies through preferential policies such as tax rebates, low rent or subsidies for equipment and also through the construction of a 250,000 square meter entrepreneurship base. Currently there are almost 600 enterprises in the zone. (more…)

By Jean-Charles Briand

July 24 - Located in Ningbo’s Beilun District, the Ningbo Economic and Technical Development Zone, one of China’s earliest and largest national development zones, represents a well-developed economy. The zone, approved by the State Council in 1984, currently covers an area of 29.6 square kilometers. A bonded logistics zone, a free trade zone, an export processing zone and the Ningbo Daxie island development zone are also located nearby.

Throughout its 24 years of operation, industries historically important in Ningbo such as textiles and food processing, as well as automobiles, machinery and equipment manufacturing, have used the NETDZ as their preferred export base. In 2005 the GDP of the zone reached RMB23.40 billion while the total investment amounted to US$2.59 billion, and the contracted FDI was US$1.05 billion.

Newer industries such as the petrochemical and chemical industry, the steel industry, the papermaking and shipbuilding have also established themselves in the NETDZ. The zone is now equipped to deal with petrochemical, as several berths have been built to accommodate their incoming raw material. (more…)

SHANGHAI, July 21 - A top aide for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been the suspected victim of a “honeytrap” operation by Chinese intelligence agents a leading British newspaper reported on Sunday.

The Sunday Times is reporting that a senior Downing Street advisor had his BlackBerry phone stolen after being picked up by a Chinese woman at a Shanghai disco.

“A senior official said yesterday that the incident had all the hallmarks of a suspected honeytrap by Chinese intelligence,” the paper reported. (more…)

By Jean-Charles Briand

HANGZHOU, July 15 – This is the first part in an ongoing series that will focus on development parks in the Yangtze River Delta. Over the next few weeks, we will highlight several parks, looking at their strengths and weaknesses and future outlook. Today, we look at the Singapore-Hangzhou Science and Technology Park. .

Located within the Hangzhou Economic and Technological Development Area, the real estate developer Ascendas, in collaboration with local authorities, is developing a new development zone: the Singapore-Hangzhou Science and Technology Park. With a total area of 43 hectares, the SHSTP should provide after completion 800,000 square meters of gross floor area. (more…)