|
The Australia-China Chamber of Commerce and Industry of New South Wales |
|
|
|
|
|
|
TRADE AND INVESTMENT STRATEGIES WITH CHINA The Network of Co-operative Agreements With Cities and Provinces in China 1995 CONTENTS Areas of concentration for trade
and investment Cities and provinces in China
with ACCCI Co-operative Agreements Note that the data contained in this document pertain to
1994. Consult the Key Cities Index for
more recent data. |
|
Chamber members have indicated
that they are associated with ACCCI of New South Wales largely because they
realise that China is too important to Australia to be neglected. They also recognise the sound and sensible
nature of the Chamber’s objectives, which are: v
promoting Australian business, in general, within
the context of two-way trade and investment with China, v
promoting the Chamber and the businesses of its
member companies with businesses and organisations in China, and v
promoting various Chamber projects (such as Rugby
Union Football and Dragon Boat Racing in China), which have the principal
purpose of bringing the business communities together. Members of the State Council of
the Chamber remain fully committed to these objectives, and are currently
developing strategies to achieve them. The purpose of this booklet is
to describe the strategies already developed that are now being put into
effect. How will Chamber members benefit? Chamber members will benefit
only to the extent to which they avail themselves to the opportunities that
are being created. An informal survey
of a portion of the Chamber’s membership indicated that they generally lack
the following: v
in-depth analyses of particular commercial sectors
and industries in China, with a view to determining what China needs and what
can be supplied from Australia, v
specific information about business prospects in
China, including exports, imports and joint-venture investment opportunities,
especially on a regional basis, v
reliable contacts in China from whom information
can be obtained and, if desirable, introductions can be made, and v
knowledge as to where to begin to seek
joint-venture partners and how to insure that the “appropriate” partner is
found, The basic strategies of the
Chamber are intended to establish a way of obtaining these analyses,
information, contacts and knowledge.
Initially, they will be acquired mainly on a case-by-case basis, in
response to specific requests from members, or in connection with particular
opportunities that are seen to arise from our Chinese counterparts. Eventually we hope to anticipate members’ needs and to collect
the analyses, information, contacts and knowledge in the belief that some
Chamber members will be able to use them and to benefit from them. The mechanism with which that
collection is expected to be made is both innovative potentially
durable. It is essentially a channel
for the two-way flow of information, a basis for mutual understanding among
the business communities and a platform for the exchange of business people
between Australia and China. As a
mechanism or structure, it functions only if it is used. Its success, and its permanence, will
depend upon that usage. What are the key elements in the strategy? The vastness of China, and the
size of its population, prompted the State Council to be selective in the
number of counterpart organisations in cities and provinces in China with
whom we establish “ld friend” status.
Having acquired such status is extremely valuable, but it also entails
obligations. The Chamber’s
organisation is relatively small, compared to that of its counterparts in
China. We cannot hope to fulfil
obligations entered into with all major cities in China, or with all
organisations in China that send trade missions to Australia. Being selective is not necessarily a sign
of snobbishness on our part, it is essential for our own ability to function. The most important element in
the Chamber’s strategy is to establish “old friend” status with cities and
provinces which have the following characteristics: v
they allow scope for the friendship to be mutually
satisfactory, v
they are expected to grow substantially over the
medium-to-long term so that early participation in their business and commercial
activities will be rewarded as a sustainable activity, and v
they are not yet so large and so open-to-the-world
as to be over-committed with too many “old friends”. With the signing, or the
intention of signing, co-operative agreements with 24 cities and provinces,
the Chamber now has 24 potential “old friends”. The agreements only provide the basis to form that
friendship. The status must be
acquired through a period of mutual exchange, assistance and
obligations. As noted above, it is
the accumulation of obligations, both paid and received, which is of
value. What are the co-operative agreements? Each agreement is an undertaking
by the Chamber to co-operate in the business areas of export/import,
investment joint ventures, business information including academic research
and development, commercial culture such as the performing arts, and public
administration including social services.
Each party agrees to co-operate
as follows: v
in export-import matters, by exchanging information on rural
activities, mining ventures, manufactured products and a variety of services, v
in investment and joint ventures, by facilitating capital
flow and technology transfer, v
in business information including academic research and development,
by establishing long-term institutional economic relations, v
in commercial culture such as the performing arts, by
encouraging viable cultural interchange, and v
in public administration including social services, by
transfer of all forms of management expertise. Each party agrees to sponsor and
promote visits by business delegations for the expansion of bilateral trade
and investment. All projects are
subject to agreement by both parties and the co-operative agreement will
remain in effect until such time that the two parties mutually decide to
terminate it. In most cases the agreements
will be reviewed within 3 years after signing, in order to determine how much
benefit has been achieved and to seek ways of improving that benefit. Considerable effort has been made to
ensure that the agreements are not filed away and forgotten. What have we gained from the agreements? The principal attribute of the
agreements is to formally record an expression of interest in working toward
a mutually beneficial set of co-operative activities. That expression alone establishes the
first layer of good will. They enable
the Chamber to ask for assistance when member companies visit the city or province. They also enable Chinese companies and
organisations to ask for our assistance.
They provide the Chamber with a
reliable source of reference about particular business ventures in China and
about individual business people.
They also give the Chinese a similar source of information about
Chamber members and friendly-to-the-Chamber organisations. They enable both parties, and
their respective constituents, to have a starting point in a wide range of
business activities. In short, they
provide a basic institutional framework for obtaining the analyses, contacts,
information and knowledge mentioned above. Why choose four areas of concentration As most members are aware, the
number of trade delegations which the Chamber has hosted over the past 20
years is exceptionally large.
Moreover, the number of visits per year has been increasing. In order to concentrate these incoming and
outgoing trade delegations into single-interest groups, and thus to avoid the
‘shotgun’ approach to trade exchanges, four areas of concentration have been
identified and are described in the next section. They are broadly defined at the
present time in order not to preclude particular interests of Chamber
members. It is hoped that further
concentration within these four areas will be possible. Organising two-way trade
delegations on a regular basis is regarded as an important aspect of the
co-operative agreements. Personal
experience and personal contact is by far the most effective way of gaining
the information and knowledge required for successful business ventures in
China, or joint ventures in Australia with partners in China. The selection of four areas of
concentration will also assist in achieving a systematic collection and
presentation of information on the key cities and provinces in China. This information will require time to collect,
verify and process. The Chamber has
made arrangements with an Australia-China consulting firm to assist in
obtaining some of the information to be used as briefing material for outward
trade delegations. We will also seek full information about incoming trade
delegations. Considerable time has
been lost in the past in the process of ‘exchanging credentials’ during
visits. Exchanging that information
before the visits enables the respective delegations to focus on the main
purposes of the visits and to optimise the use of the limited amount of time
generally available for the trade missions. |
|
|
Urban Services Rural Industries Infrastructure Commercial Culture The purpose of this section of
the strategies booklet is to define the four areas and to explain the reasons
for the selection of each as an area of concentration. Broadly speaking, urban services
include all activities of the services sector (or tertiary sector), which are
provided specifically to users in urban areas. They do not include public utilities and construction, since
the Chamber grouped these services with infrastructure. The services sector is conventionally
divided into four major categories: Commerce Transport, storage and
communications Finance, insurance and business
services Government services Each of these has a number of
sub-categories. For example, commerce
would include wholesale trades, retail trades, hotels, restaurants, theatres
and other entertainment services.
Since each category is exceptionally broad, the Chamber has restricted
its interest in urban services to include the following: Finance, banking and insurance
services International trade services Business services for
manufacturing Real estate and property Selected government services
such as public administration and health administration The first two categories are
highlighted as important areas of development in China. This conclusion is based upon the
development of those same sectors in Taiwan during the past two decades. Between 1952 and 1994, a total
of US$1.4 billion in overseas direct investment flowed into Taiwan for both
categories, and jointly comprise about 15% of total overseas direct
investment during the period. Over the same period of time,
US$2.3 billion in outward investment approvals occurred for Taiwan in
finance, banking and insurance. A
large share of this outward investment went into mainland provinces. International trade services include a range of business and professional
services oriented toward the facilitation of international trade. This would include legal services,
accounting, transport agencies and other services that are needed for an
efficient and sustained flow of merchandise trade. It is one of the most rapidly growing division of China’s
services sector. Business services for manufacturing could include legal and accounting services, but
also includes technical assistance from Australian manufacturers. Joint ventures with Chinese manufacturing
enterprises will be explored, partly as a means for Australian manufacturers
to export to China and partly for the purpose of securing supplies of Chinese
products in Australia. This would
involve financial, legal and technical services. In the recent past, real estate and property
services to China have been
provided principally by Overseas Chinese.
Considerable scope exists, however, for Australian enterprises to
become part of the huge potential in urban expansion and renewal. The process of rapid industrialisation in
China will significantly alter the current percentage of people living in
rural areas. Government administration in China
is becoming more ‘westernised’, but will probably always retain features of
Chinese traditions dating from the time of Confucius. Modernising the system of administration
without losing the more important elements of those traditions is a
challenging task. Improvements in
health administration are among the more urgently needed aspects of public
administration. Rural industries include primary
production as well as rural secondary industries and rural services. It includes the following: Agriculture Livestock Forestry Fisheries Mining Township and village enterprises Of particular interest is
township and village enterprises (TVEs).
This includes a variety of activities ranging from food processing to
small and medium sized manufacturing plants relying upon rural labour and
primary products for inputs. These
enterprises employed more than 12 million people in 1993. The gross output of TVEs increased from
US$207 billion to US$363 billion in 1993. Most of that employment and
output has occurred in China’s coastal provinces such as Jiangsu, Shandong,
Zhejiang, Guandong and Henan. The
non-coastal provinces such as Sichuan, Anhui and Hebei have nevertheless
experienced rapid growth in TVEs. Most of the northwest and
southwest provinces are lagging behind the other provinces in these
developments, and therefore offer an opportunity for longer-term Australian
participation in both trade and investment. Infrastructure is generally
classified into the following categories: Land transport, including road
and rail Air transport, including
airports Sea transport, including
seaports Telecommunications, including
public switched telephone networks, microwave transmitters, optical fibre
cable and satellite earth stations Electricity supply Gas supply Urban and rural water supply Wastewater treatment Solid waste disposal In most parts of China
infrastructure development has kept up with the need for improvement. This has resulted from the rapid rate of
economic growth, and from the inability to assess infrastructure requirements
associated with the faster pace of economic activity. The need is particularly noticeable in the
northwestern provinces where infrastructure has not been improved substantially
since the 1950s. Rail transport in China
increased at an average rate of 8.8 per cent per year in constant GDP terms
since 1987 but even with that increase, there are significant shortages of
capacity. Road construction has also
lagged behind demand, except for the more prosperous coastal provinces. Although the efficiency in civil
aviation has improved in recent years, the growth in passenger travel from
11.6 billion passenger-km in 1985 to 47.8 billion passenger km in 1993
created enormous pressures. The air
transport system requires substantially more improvement in order to operate
effectively. China has relatively few
seaports that can handle modern containerships, and continues to rely on
relatively small general cargo vessels.
Despite this, the amount of cargo handled more than doubled from 1985
to 1993. The major ports are becoming
increasingly more constrained. The number of main telephone
lines in China in 1991 was only 0.73 per 100 people compared to Australia’s
46 per 100 people in the same year.
To catch up with the rest of the world, China’s expenditure for
telecommunications is expected to increase from the present level of about
US$5 billion to more than US$12 billion in the year 2000. Although China’s power sector
has managed to grow at a rapid pace of more than 8 per cent per annum from
1980 to 1993, to become the fourth largest generating system in the world,
persistent power shortages continue to occur. Of particular importance is the need for electrical network
strengthening in the poorer provinces. Gas supplies, mainly town gas,
have been increasing in response to the desire to avoid excessive pollution
from coal-fired heating and cooking in the provinces north of the Yangtze
River. Considerable work remains,
however. Water supplies are rapidly improving
in the coastal region, but residential access to tap water per capita in
urban areas remains at just over 90 per cent, on the average. In rural areas the availability of safe
water is of course lower, and the need for improved sanitation is greater. The Chamber has long recognised
the importance of mixing cultural exchanges with trade missions. They provide a focus of attention that is
separate from, but conducive to, the business and commercial interests that
are the principal driving force of the co-operative agreements. The special category of ‘commercial
culture’ includes a variety of cultural activities that have a potential to
be commercially viable. This includes
a range of entertainment and leisure activities that contain a significant
amount of cultural content. The selection of particular
activities to be exchanged depends largely upon the special characteristics
of the individual cities and provinces.
The intention is to view these activities broadly to include potentially
all forms of visual art, music and the performing arts. For many years the Chamber has
been active in its sponsorship of cultural activities. The W. J. Liu Exhibition of scrolls has
been one of the most popular and widely appreciated of these activities. We expect to enlarge the list of
these activities substantially in the next few years, thus providing scope
for Chamber members to meet with a wide variety of both Chinese and
Australian officials. |
|
|
|
Beijing Beijing is one of the three
municipalities in China whose government is considered to be at the same
level as a provincial government. The
other two municipalities are Tianjin and Shanghai. The mayors of those cities therefore occupy the same ranking
within the Chinese hierarchy as provincial governors. In the case of Beijing, the city
limits extend for some 80 km from the centre. Within these limits exist an urban area, a number of suburban
areas and nine rural counties to form a total area of 16,800 sq km. The overall population is more than 10
million, compared to 63 million in Hebei Province, which completely surrounds
Beijing. Although the city’s origins have
a much longer history, most of the urban pattern, layout and structures, such
as the Forbidden City, were designed in the early part of the 1400s when the
Ming Dynasty moved back to Beijing from Nanjing. At that time, the Inner City occupied the area around the
Imperial City, and a suburban zone was added to the south. As a result of large amounts of
money poured into it since 1949, Beijing has most of the trappings that are
befitting to China’s national capital.
Streets were widened, parks, museums and open spaces were created and
the old wall was removed. The city
continues to change rapidly, as does most of China, but with those changes
Beijing remains a different part of China. Under Mao Zedong, Beijing began
to industrialise and become a “People’s City”. Clothing and textile manufacturing developed quickly, together
with iron and steel industries, petrochemicals and machinery. Despite the continuing dominance of
central government administration, the city now produces a wide range of
manufactured goods. Transport and telecommunications
continue to be the best in China.
These and other infrastructural advantages have appealed to many
foreign enterprises, resulting in a large number of joint ventures. ACCCI’s co-operative-agreement
partner in the city is the Beijing Branch of the Chinese Council for the
Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT).
Since the organisation represents a large number of manufactures, like
other branches, they are keen to seek new outlets for their products and to
obtain more joint venture partners. With a location in the same
city, the Beijing Branch of the CCPIT has close connections with the national
office of the CCPIT. That provides an
additional advantage in forming an association with the branch. Not surprisingly, per capita
income in Beijing is substantially higher than in most of China’s cities, at
RMB 6,805 yuan per annum (in 1993).
Only Shanghai is higher at RMB 8,652 yuan per annum. For most of this century, China’s
northeastern region was a three-dimensional checkerboard for various warring
factions. First it was Imperial China
v. Imperial Japan, with Manchu bandit leaders initiating rear-guard action to
appropriate whatever was not firmly secured.
Then it was Imperial Japan v.
Imperial Russia, with the latter eventually leaving with as much as they
could carry, including office furniture and railway tracks. Eventually, militarist China struggled
with militarist Japan for control over the region’s supplies of raw
materials. Finally, Chiang Kaishek’s
Kuomingtang troops engaged in three critical battles in the northeast with
Mao Zedong’s locally recruited sympathisers.
The local revolutionaries used captured weaponry including Japanese tanks
and US jeeps. By this time, they were
fed up with the numerous checkerboard games, and especially with players who
took away their ‘marbles’. In recent times, the northeast
has become an industrial powerhouse.
Some observers suggest that the Japanese influence during World War II
contributed to the region’s ability to achieve an apparently painless
industrial revolution. The desire to become
self-sufficient must nevertheless be strong in a region for which
exploitation was both ruthless and persistent. This cannot be attributed to any one of the former combatants,
but to the entire chain of events. Although Liaoning Province is
regarded as the northeast’s main engine for industrialisation, Changchun
received a boost in 1950 with China’s first motor car manufacturing
plant. Manufacturing during that
period received assistance from the Soviet Union. Trucks, tractors, Red Flag limousines, locomotives soon appeared,
together with carpets, articles of fur and wood carvings. Jilin Province now has about 26
million people, making it smaller than Liaoning to the south (40 million) and
Heilongjiang to the north (36 million).
Per capita GDP is also lower – Rmb 2,071 yuan compared to Rmb 3,254
yuan in Liaoning and Rmb 2,433 yuan in Heilongjiang. This results partly from a greater
reliance on agriculture in Jilin – more than 25 per cent of GDP compared to
15 per cent in Liaoning and 20 per cent in Heilongjiang. Changchun is also interesting as
the site of the Puppet Emperor’s Palace and Exhibition Hall, commemorating
the late Henry Puyi, China’s last emperor.
The city has a film studio which got its start making documentaries
during China’s civil war period. Thus, the combination of
agriculture, manufacturing, culture and the arts make Changchun a microcosm
of China itself. The Chamber looks
upon the city as a potential centre for future developments in the northeast. Tumen/Hunchun (Jilin Province) Tumen and Hunchun are likely to
become twin cities if current plans for a free trade zone encompassing China,
North Korea and Russia eventuate.
Hunchun is now classified as a backwater area located a few kilometres
west of the Russian border and approximately the same distance from the North
Korean border. The Chamber does not have a
reliable crystal ball to suggest when, if ever, that particular area will
become a growth triangle. It is
nevertheless clear, on the basis of past experience, that the Chinese will
not allow its border regions to remain insecure. The pace of development for Tumen and Hunchun may be slow for
some time to come, as other regions receive a higher priority, but it will
develop. Hailar (Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region) Inner Mongolia is the longest of
China’s provinces, spanning more than 2,600 km mostly in an east-west direction. The region conjures visions of a vast
movie set beyond the Great Wall with sweeping grasslands emerging where the
Gobi Desert ends. It is nevertheless the home of
more than 22 million people. The
Mongol ethnic group comprises about 10 per cent of the population, with
Mongol-Han dominating, particularly in the border regions. Pockets of Manchus occur in the east, and
some Hui are located near the provincial capital of Hohhot and along the
northern bank of the Yellow River.
Daurs and Ewenkis are found in the northeastern tip. Inner Mongolia is also the site
of one ‘foot’ of the most ambitious reafforestation programmes in the
world. On either side of the Great
Wall, and extending for 6,000 km, a belt of trees is designed to protect farmland
from desert sands carried by northern winds.
It will also help to restore the
timber stands which became depleted during the period of enormous population
pressures toward the end of the Qing Dynasty. Already the tree-planting programme has raised the afforestation
level from 9 per cent to 13 per cent.
Intentions are to bring the level to 20 per cent by year 2000. This will involve a total of 70 million
hectares. There are two centres of
development in Inner Mongolia. One is
in the northeast with railway links to Jilin Province, as well as to Mongolia
and Russia. The other is in the west
with a rail line following the Yellow River and connecting Hohhot to Ningxia
Autonomous Region to the west, and continuing eastward to the
Beijing-Mongolia line. In between is Xanadu Palace,
near Duolun. These connections follow
the road system installed by Kublai Khan, who became the first emperor of the
Yuan Dynasty. Trade links with Russia
and with the rest of the world were thus formed in the second half of the
13th century. Since the province is a natural
grazing land, its chief economic activity is livestock breeding, including
horses, sheep, cattle and camels. It
is thus a major source of leather and dairy products. Hailar is a growing city in the
northeast, not far from the border with Outer Mongolia. It has been opened relatively recently and
appears destined for major grasslands development in the region of Dalai
Lake. It has and airport and is a
principal supply point for Manzhouli which is on the border with Outer
Mongolia and Russia. As with Tumen/Hunchun, China
will secure its border areas, particularly in view of the growing spirit of
independence exhibited by the 2 million or so inhabitants of Outer Mongolia,
which occurred with the recent departure of Soviet troops and personnel. Tangshan is only a few
kilometres outside the municipal limits of Tianjin, and is therefore more
closely associated with activities in that city than with those in Hebei
Province. Tianjin has a population of
more than 9 million, including rural areas.
Tianjin became a treaty port in
1858, largely as a result of the British and French assessment of its
location on both the Grand Canal and the Bohai Sea. The Grand Canal is the ancient inland waterway connecting the
Yangtze and the Yellow Rivers, running between Hangzhou and Beijing. The Bohai Sea is the ocean inlet north of
Shandong Province and bounded on the east by Dalian. After 1949, Tianjin became a
major industrial city and produces a wide variety of consumer goods, heavy
machinery and precision equipment.
The consumer products, in particular, are well regarded in terms of
their quality. They represent most of
the relatively few examples in China of brand-name production for national
distribution. Tangshan is on the mainline
railway connecting Tianjin with Harbin to the north. Together with Shenyang in Liaoning
Province, it is noted particularly for its production of locomotives and
other railway equipment. It is an
important link between the older industrialised region of China and newly
industrialising regions in the northeast. Shandong Province is slightly
larger in size than Zhejiang, but has an even greater population of about 86
million. Traditionally it has been a
poor province. The Yellow River
changed its path through the province some 26 times within recorded history. The river is also notorious for
flooding and for periods of sustained drought. To make it even more difficult for the province to be
self-sufficient in food, about two-thirds of the province is hilly, with high
mountain peaks in the southwest and a coastal chain of mountains within the
Shandong Peninsula, which extends into the sea. The province has nevertheless
made a quantum leap into industrialisation, assisted by early German
influences in Qingdao. It is likely
to continue this progress in manufacturing, but improvements in agriculture
and rural industries will remain an important need for some time to
come. Yantai is very much a
sea-oriented city. The name means
‘smoke-terrace’, and Yantai acquired that name during the Opium Wars when
fires were lit on the headland to warn ships of approaching pirates. The city continues to reflect its origin
as a fishing village and a naval defence outpost. As with many other coastal
cities, the attraction of manufacturing as an a major boost to economic
development has been irresistible.
Yantai is noted for its production of wine, spirits and fruit, but is
rapidly diversifying its output. The Shandong Peninsula is the
recipient of direct investment from the Republic of Korea, which lies only
400 km to the east. Rapid development
of the coastal cities is expected to follow from this inflow. Linyi is a relatively small
community in the southeastern part of the province. It therefore has linkages with northern Jiangsu Province and
with Anhui Province. An important
element in that area is conversion of locally available grain supplies into
livestock feed, as well as significant improvements in breeding stock and in
meat and poultry processing. Although there are numerous
centres for concentration in rural industries, Linyi represents a good choice
on the basis of location. Changshu is in the central part
of the huge industrial complex that extends from Nanjing to Shanghai on the
southern bank of the Yangtze River.
The historical importance of Changshu has been dwarfed by that of the two
larger centres, as well as by neighbouring Suzhou. This arises partly from the
Chinese tradition of locating cities in concentrated areas with rivers
flowing through or around them. In
the case of Suzhou, a moat was constructed to enclose the old city. Changshu, on the other hand, is located on
the main roadway between Nanjing and Shanghai and in earlier periods was a
quite town specialising in lace-making. Industrialisation has altered
land use in China and places a premium on broader, less concentrated areas
that are close to river transport.
This avoids the congestion associated with rail or road movement of
goods and allows ample space for expansion. Changshu has these
characteristics with some distance between the old site of the town and the
river. The farmland, which collected
nutrient-rich soil from upstream erosion, has been converted into industrial
estates that are linked by wide roadways and are easily provided with the
necessary utilities. Changshu is nevertheless
associated with the commercial culture of Nanjing, Suzhou and Shanghai, and
is rapidly becoming the satellite industrial centre for these more
traditional cities. Its growth seems
guaranteed within that strategic part of the Yangtze delta. The population of Jiangsu
Province is about 70 million. Zhejiang Province is one of the
smallest in area but has traditionally been one of the most prosperous. This results partly from the fertile land
in the northern portion of the province, which is part of the Yangtze River
delta, and partly to its close proximity to Shanghai. Historical events also contributed to the
forward-looking nature of the province.
Hangzhou became the site of the imperial court for the Southern Song
Dynasty in 1126, in order to avoid northern invaders. The city grew in size and became the
centre of Chinese culture during the period.
Ningbo lies to the southeast of
Hangzhou and is separated from Shanghai by a portion of the sea that extends
west to Hangzhou. Within that general
area, the local dialect is Shanghainese. Ningbo rose to prominence in the
7th and 8th centuries as a trading port from which Zhejiang’s exports,
especially silk, were carried to Japan, to the Ryukyu Islands and to other
parts of China’s coastal region. The
Portuguese established trading quarters in Ningbo in the 16th Century, mainly
for the purpose of trade with Japan.
Thus, Ningbo is an open city not only by central government decree,
but also by tradition. The manufacturing sector in
Ningbo is its principal engine for development. The city produces a wide range of industrial products, mainly
classified as miscellaneous items such as pumps, small motors and various
articles of metal. Most of the heavier
industries in the province are located closer to Shanghai. The city is also becoming a
services centre for the region extending eastward from Hangzhou and to the
south. Its relatively small size, its
location close to Shanghai and its forward-looking attitude make it a good
choice as a key location in Eastern China. The population of Zhejiang is 43
million people and the population of Ningbo is about 500,000. Although Fujian Province cannot
claim to have exported Mao Zedong (see description of Zhuzhou on page 26), it
has made that claim for an extremely large number of Chinese who migrated to
Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. The local dialect is referred to as the
south-of-the-Min-River language and is very similar to Taiwanese. Both provinces of course speak Mandarin as
the official language. Fujian officials are attempting
to re-build a sense of identity with the province among Overseas Chinese, and
are encouraging investment in the ‘homeland’. As a result, Fuzhou, the provincial capital, has become a moderately
wealthy city. It is a well-established port
city, with a history of transport and commerce that goes back to the early
days of the Silk Road and the adventures of Marco Polo. During most of that history, only the
coastal cities displayed any degree of prosperity. The higher elevations in the western part of the province
continue to exhibit poorer living conditions. The economy of Fuzhou remains
heavily dependent upon agriculture and fishing, but its industries are
developing rapidly. Xiamen, which
lies about 200 km to the south, became more industrialised as a result of its
early status as a special economic zone.
However, the zone, and the city
within it, is on an island and is thus restricted in terms of future
development. Additionally, in
encouraging investment from Overseas Chinese, the authorities invited
investors to purchase dwellings and to live in Xiamen on a permanent
basis. This stimulated land
development, financed partly by the Overseas Chinese, resulting in a number
of luxury flats and villas. Although these housing
developments are generally located away from the more favourable
manufacturing sites, they nevertheless give rise to an additional restriction
on future land use for industrial estates on the island. The population of Fujian
Province is about 32 million, and nearly 6 million people live in Fuzhou. |
