Nantong unveils industrial projects for overseas investors
(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2004-03-12 14:18

Nantong, one of the first 14 port cities to open to the outside world, warmly welcomes more overseas investments in its pilllar industries, said Ding Dawei, mayor of the Nantong Municipal Government, in Beijing yesterday.

Located near the Yangtze River in Eastern Jiangsu Province and only a one-hour drive from Shanghai, Nantong has prepared a large number of investment opportunities for overseas investors, according to Ding, who briefed a large group of international investors.

"We will open the city wider to the outside world and introduce more and more international practices to ensure investors have an ideal business environment and get good profits, "said Ding.

Song Fei, vice-mayor of Nantong, who is in charge of the city's economic development, noted at yesterday's briefing that Nantong will encourage more international projects in three major sectors.
One is the port industries depending on local river and seas superiorities.

"We will encourage projects on chemistry, steel, ship building, material manufacturing, electricity production, food processing, storage and logistics services," said Song.

He added that the city -- the largest among the 16 cities in the Yangtze River Delta region -- also welcomes more foreign investors to bring products with an international competitive edge to Nantong's light industries, such as food processing, essences and perfumes, plastics, metal ware, leather processing and interior-decor material manufacturing. The textile industry will receive special attention.

By the end of 2003, Nantong had 700 textile enterprises contributing to more than one-half of the city's foreign trade volume last year. Foreign investment in the production of textile fibers, chemical synthetic fibers, special functional fibers, high-grade materials and garments of superior quality will be encouraged.

Nantong will also welcome more funds in the high- and new-technology industries of electronic information and bio-medicine, according to city officials.

They highlighted integrated circuits and new types of components, products for digital mobile communications and photo communications, electronic nanometer and semi-conductors, and high-performance magnetic and functional ceramic materials.

Having gained the initiative by opening to the outside world and owning to the ripe enviroment for investment, Nantong has attracted business people from 74 countries and regions. More than 3,400 foreign-funded enterprises have been established in the city, with a total of US$3.3 billion injected into local industries.

A large group of transnational corporations -- 14 of which top the world's 500 list -- have come to Nantong to launch enterprises. They include the Japanese OJI Paper Co, Toray, Teijin, COSCO Heavy Industry, American Reilly, Celanese, Swiss Ross, Syngenta and German Hurst. All of these corporations have been rewarded with rich profits, according to Mayor Ding.

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