Life of Guangzhou - Nansha Development Zone

AS the geographic center of the Pearl River Delta, Nansha's future attracts nearby cities, especially Hong Kong, Macao, Shenzhen, Zhongshan, Dongguan and Zhuhai. It takes about an hour or so to go from Nansha to any of the cities mentioned above.

Guangdong Government is hoping to turn Nansha into another Shenzhen over the next few years. When construction is all completed, and the place will become the largest water and land transportation hub in the Pearl River Delta, a major commercial city and a holiday resort catering to people from Hong Kong and Macao. It is very lucky that the first phase of Guangzhou urban light rail system is under construction, which connects Guangzhou center and Panyu District.

In time Nansha will become a center for logistics, another urban center of Guangzhou City, and a new Special Economic Zone of modern industries. The whole development zone will cover an area of 797 square kilometers, with a land area of 536 square kilometers, when it is finished it will be as large as that of the present Guangzhou urban area.

1 Great Achievements in the Construction of the Development Zone Situated on the west bank of the mouth of Pearl River and the west bank of Humen Waterway, Nansha Development Zone, Guangzhou is in the geometrical center of the Pearl River Delta, and a dozen of big or medium size cities with the most developed economies in the Pearl River Delta are within its radius of 100 kilometers. Nansha is the regional hub of land and water transportation. The water transportation leads to the big ports in the world through the water system and the estuary of Pearl River. Nansha is 38 nautical miles and 41 nautical miles away from Hong Kong and Macao respectively by waterway. It is provided with strong market potential and influences with the outstanding strategic position.

The advantage of geological position had drawn the highly attention from Guangdong Provincial Government which made Nansha one of the key development zones of Guangdong Province in early 1990s. In 1993, Guangzhou Nansha Economic and Technological Development Zone was approved by State Council, which drives the development of Nansha. During April 28th and 29th, 2002, Guangdong provincial government had the on-site meeting on the development of Nansha, proposing an important act that the development and construction of Nansha will be the momentum of Guangzhou, enhance the international competitiveness of the Pearl River Delta and even Guangdong Province and strengthen the economic and technological cooperation between cities in the Pearl River Delta and the region of Hong Kong and Macao.

In line with the target on the meeting to build Nansha into a modern seashore city perfect ideal for both business and living, Guangzhou makes the planning of Nansha as the key point of the urbanization strategy of "South Exploitation" with over 10 billion RMB capital input yearly on the infrastructure construction in Nansha. Headquarters of Nansha Development Zone, Guangzhou was established in August 2002, exerting municipal authority on administration and approvings and implementing uniform planning and administration.

With the concerns and support from Guangdong Provincial Government and Guangzhou Municipal Government, the development of Nansha has made great achievements. According to the statistics, the gross production value of Nansha area in 2003 is 7.55 billion RMB, increasing 15.5% compared to that of last year. The gross industrial production value is 13.54 billion RMB, increasing 24.2% compared to that of last year. The fixed assets investment is 5.93 billion RMB, increasing 234% compared to that of last year. Actually utilized foreign investment is 100 million US dollars, increasing 61% compared to that of last year. The total volume of foreign trade export is 640 million US dollars, increasing 28% compared to that of last year. From January to July this year, the gross industrial production value of Nansha Development Zone reaches 9.07 billion RMB, increasing 21.3% compared to that of the same period of last year. Actually utilized foreign investment is 200 million US dollars, increasing 5 times compared to that of the same period of last year. The total volume of foreign trade export from January to June is 420 million US dollars, increasing 41.1% compared to that of the same period of last year. Nansha Development Zone, Guangzhou has been acknowledged by the nation. Under the background of regulating and ordering of all the development zones in the country during the past half year, Nansha Development Zone was approved by State Council to be adjusted and expanded by 17.7 square kilometer, from 9.9 square kilometers to 27.6 square kilometers.

2 Further Progress in Investment Attraction Relying on three pillar industries of harbor-related industries, modern logistics and IT industry, the investment attraction of Nansha has made rapid progress for the past two years. The bases of automobile, iron and steel, shipbuilding, petrochemical, heavy machinery and equipment, photo-electron and integrated circuits, grain processing and transportation and harbor logistics are emerging, and the industrial layout is almost shaped.

Automobile Base.
In 2003, the engine production project of Toyota Automobile Company from Japan was approved by the National Development and Reform Committee to be settled in Nansha. The investment volume of the project is planned to be 2.2 billion RMB, and the annual output will be 300,000 engines in the first phase and 500,000 engines in the second phase. At present, the project is at the stage of plant construction and will put into production by the early of 2005. The Toyota Entire Car Project was recently approved by the department of the national government. It will invest 3.69 billion RMB to produce 100,000 cars of Toyota Camry yearly at the initial stage and 400,000 cars at the final stage. At the same time, lots of automobile spare parts suppliers are coming to Nansha.

Shipbuilding Base.
China Shipment Group Company has decided to invest 4.5 billion RMB in Nansha and build one of the three biggest shipbuilding bases of China with the annual manufacturing capacity of 3 million tons. The project is at the initial stage of foundation work and is expected to be put into production by 2007.

Iron and Steel Base.
Guangzhou Iron and Steel Enterprise and JFE Steel Company from Japan will cooperate on the project of producing 400,000 tons hot galvanized steel sheets every year which supplies for the automobile industry of Guangzhou.

Photo-electron and integrated circuits.
ARASOR Company from USA will invest 1.76 billion RMB in Nansha to produce photo-electronic components and modules, research, development and produce new generation photo-electronic chips and build world top class R&D center of photo-electron. Compass from Hong Kong invests 100 million US dollars to develop and produce the soft foundation materials for the package of integrated circuits. At present, the project is in the phase of project design. Guangzhou Municipal Government invests 300 million RMB to build Guangzhou Institute of Industrial Technology Research in Nansha. The project will build the R&D center, incubator and industrialization base to provide the technological supporting platform for the new industrialization of the Pearl River Delta. Those high-tech projects will be the lead of high-tech industrial development in Nansha and drive the sunrise industries.

Heavy Machinery and Equipment Base.
On March 25th, 2004, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries from Japan, Mitsubishi Corporation from Japan and China Dong Fang Steam Turbine Works signed the joint venture and invested 4.5 billion Yen to manufacture the core components of gas turbine. On May 17th, Dongfang Electric Corporation of China, China Er-zhong Heavy Machinery Group, Guangzhou Guangzhong Enterprises Group Company, Guangdong Power Supply Group and Guangzhou Nansha Gonghua Investment Company invested 600 million RMB to produce the heavy machineries and equipment, such as sustaining devices of the nuclear power generator and huge gas turbine engine. Plus the tunnel boring machinery project of Guangzhou Herrenknecht TBM Company, Nansha Development Zone has been the heavy machinery and equipment manufacturing base of the Pearl River Delta.

Grain Processing and Transportation Base.
Guangdong Dongling (Holding) Group invests 763 million RMB in Nansha to build the largest vegetable oil production base in the country processing 4 million tons soybeans and 1 million tons vegetable seeds every year. It will also build a logistics base transporting and distributing 20 million tons corn, soybean and vegetable seeds to further development the logistic and trade center of grain and oil in South China. Once those projects are completed, Guangzhou will be an international grain logistic center with the influences on South China and Southeast Asia.

Harbor Logistics Base.
Nansha harbor logistics industry refers to Longxue Island Comprehensive Logistics Base, Xiaohu Petrochemical Warehousing and Logistics Park and Shazai Island Automobile Logistics Park. Longxue Island Comprehensive Logistics Base is focused on the development of marine shipment, and four 50,000-ton multi-functional berths on the island will be completed and put into use by September 2004. Xiaohu Petrochemical Warehousing and Logistics Park will develop the warehousing and logistics of petrochemical products and raw materials. Shazai Island Automobile Logistics Park is developing the duty-free, warehousing, and transportation business of automobile logistics as supporting project of the automobile industry of Nansha.

The highly efficient work of Headquarters of Nansha Development Zone and the perfect investment promotion service system has been widely acknowledged by the investors from home and abroad. Lots of existing companies in Nansha are adding up more investment. GE Plastics from US added 60 million US dollars, Meiko Electronics from Japan added 105 million US dollars and KB Petrochemical Company from Hong Kong added 20.57 million US dollars.

More and more multi-national enterprises have their eyes on Nansha, and many leading projects are settling down in Nansha. Nansha has been the focus of the world. Nansha Development Zone, Guangzhou sincerely invites the entrepreneus and investors from Hong Kong to hold talks and make cooperation for the investment and development in Nansha, making Nansha as the hot land of flourishing business of the entrepreneus.