Really Useful Information for Selling to China A bi-weekly service from
INC - The China Import Network

IN THIS ISSUE

• •  China opens arms to foreign investment in hi-tech industry
• •  Cantonese Business people
• •  Investment environment of Guangdong
• •  Overview of the West Lake Expo
• •  The English version of China Import Network to Unveil

A senior official on Thursday said China welcomed more overseas investment to develop the country's hi-tech industry.
"China welcomes more international hi-tech companies to set up regional headquarters, R&D centers, procurement centers and training centers in China, and encourages domestic enterprises to explore overseas hi-tech markets," Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, told a press conference.
Zhang said China's hi-tech industry had utilized more and more foreign investment over the last two decades and multinational companies had set up more than 1,000 research institutions all over the country.
"Take the telecommunications sector, the past six years have seen about 100 million new subscribers every year and the number of phone users nationwide had hit 880 million by the end of August," he said.
As one of the world's largest hi-tech industry and largest hi-tech exporter, China produces more computers, mobile phones, antibiotics and vaccines than any other countries worldwide.
The hi-tech industry in the three coastal regions of the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta and Bohai Bay accounts for more than 80 percent of the national total in terms of scale of industry. Major industries include biomedicine, aviation and aerospace, microelectronics, photoelectron and software.
In 2006, the total revenue of the hi-tech industry exceeded 5.3 trillion yuan (706 billion U.S. dollars), with its added-value contributing 8 percent of GDP growth. Hi-tech exports stood at 281.5 billion dollars in 2006, more than four times of that in 2002, almost a third of China's total export volume.
The official predicted the total revenue of the hi-tech industry would exceed 6.3 trillion yuan in 2007 and hi-tech exports would come to 350 billion dollars.
China plans to focus on nine major special projects in the next few years, including integrated circuit and software, new generation mobile communication, next generation Internet, digital voice and video technologies, advanced computing, biological medicine, commercial airplanes, satellite as well as new materials. (source: Xinhua）

Guangdong Province lies in the south of China. Yue people or Guangfu Ren in Cantonese -- believed to be the product of mixing and assimilation between the early immigrants and the ancient Guyue minority (an ancient minority in Southeast China) -- mainly refer to the Cantonese speakers residing around the Pearl River Delta region.
Less interested in politics
In ancient times, large areas of Guangdong were swampy, and typhoons often wreaked havoc along its coast. Such difficult living conditions led the Cantonese to emphasize practicality for survival. As a result, Cantonese, like Shanghainese, were less interested in politics and officialdom than Beijingers.
The adventurous Cantonese businessmen
Cantonese businessmen are an adventurous group. They are likely to give it a try when sensing the smell of money. That may be due to the long Cantonese history of contact with the overseas world, which dates back at least to as early as the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD).
Yue people are always open-minded, ready to accept new things, and are good at copying and apprehending both material and spiritual achievements from the Western world, then incorporating them with their own traditional culture.
Unwavering pursuit of money
Cantonese are born hardworking and are ready to face any toughness ahead in their life. The ultimate goal of all the efforts is nothing but money. So the big wealth the Cantonese businesspeople accumulate is no wonder to people from inland China.
The determination to make money also contributes to the high efficiency of Cantonese businesspeople. Once a business chance appears, they will seize it as soon as possible.
Business and business only
With their courage to explore new horizons always, their broad insight, their strong sense of commerce and value, and their talent and skill in calculating, the Cantonese have created the multi-dimensional agricultural commodity economy in the Pearl River Delta, and have gained the reputation of "Guangbang businesspeople" (Yue businesspeople).
Negative traits

But Guangdong's long business experience has led to some negative traits as well. Having benefited from earlier opening to the outside and because of their business acumen, many Cantonese tend to take advantage of inexperienced people from other parts of China. And though many Cantonese make legitimate profits by following good business practices, others have taken to counterfeiting and smuggling. Numerous underground workshops produce counterfeit products from daily necessities to electronics, from labor intensive to technology intensive products.

Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong Province. It is the center of politics, economic, science and technology, education and culture. Gathering the essence of West culture with the Chinese, Guangzhou forms the Lingnan culture of unique Style. Guangzhou is a famous historical and cultural city with both classical and modern color.
Guangzhou is located in South China and the middle-south of Guangdong. It borders on the South China Sea and is adjacent to the Pearl River Delta. This steamy, subtropical metropolis, with its gray-green hues, lush parks, boisterous atmosphere, and world-famous cuisine, has an aura that is unique among China's largest cities.
Guangzhou's Huangpu Harbor, which handles 20 million tons of cargo annually, is still the largest export-import harbor in South China. About 1.3 million natives of Guangzhou are living in Hong Kong, Macao and overseas.
In recent years, the commerce and lifestyle of Guangzhou have become increasingly integrated with those of Hong Kong (182 km to the southwest). Official PRC encouragement of joint business ventures between China and foreign firms and the creation of three "special economic zones" in Guangdong Province since 1979 have led to substantial investment in Guangzhou by Hong Kong business people. Furthermore, compatriots from Hong Kong who stream across the border to conduct business, to visit relatives, or to do sightseeing have acquainted the citizens neither of Guangzhou nor only with various types of consumer goods that are not yet produced in China, but also with fashions and hairstyles that are quickly emulated by Guangzhou's youth.
Guangzhou has become one of China's biggest boom towns. Benefiting from the economic climate in Hong Kong, Guangzhou has become the target for investment by overseas Chinese and much manufacturing is now done in Guangzhou.
There are six pillar industries in GETDZ, namely chemical materials and products, electric machinery, food stuffs, electronic and telecommunication equipments, Nonferrous metals metallurgy and metals fabricating and beverages.
Priorities are given to the following industries: electronic information, bio-pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals, automobiles, modern logistics and steel.

On such a solid foundation, Guangzhou, directed by its centurial dream, will march successfully toward glory.

The Hangzhou West Lake Expo started in 1929. Since it was resumed in 2000, it has been successfully staged for eight consecutive times and received visitors totaling 72, 193,7000 person-times, the trade transaction value amounted to 63.241 billion RMB yuan, the contracted foreign investment reached 4.924 billion USD, and contracted domestic investment totaled 67.553 billion yuan, facilitating the development of the convention and exhibition industry in Hangzhou.. The Expo gives prominence to the aim for "a platform for developing the convention and exhibition industry, a carrier of cultural and ideological progress, and a festival for the ordinary people and the tourists from home and abroad", sticks to the goal of "people first, thrift, virtue and safety", thus playing the role as a platform, leader and incubator for developing the convention and exhibition industry.
The Expo gives prominence to the theme "harmonious West Lake, charming Hangzhou", centers on constructing Hangzhou's fame as "a city with quality life", and develops the brand in the convention and exhibition industry as "West Lake Expo, City with Quality Life". It boasts 65 projects, which are linked together with the theme of life quality, in 7 series of conventions and exhibitions: healthy life, leisure life, comfortable life, artistic life, beautiful life, digital life and entrepreneurship life.

As the incubator of Hangzhou's convention and exhibition industry, apart from the projects during the Expo in October, the West Lake Expo has also planned and developed a group of projects covering the rest of the year to promote the balanced development of the convention and exhibition industry.  In 2007, the latter type of projects will account for 51% of the total. The West Lake Expo has facilitated the development of the convention and exhibition industry not only in the city proper, but also in the counties (county-level cities) of Hangzhou. The counties (county-level cities) have been actively participating in the West Lake Expo, thus the coordinated development pattern of the greater Hangzhou taking its shape.

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