Multinationals increase presence in Nanjing

Capital growth and bigger production capacity mean better investment climate

Hundreds of overseas companies and enterprises, including those from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, have invested in Nanjing.

Of them 91 are Fortune 500 companies, such as BASF, Siemens, Bayer, Shell, Philips, BP, Ericsson, Ford, Motorola, Kimberly Clark, Emerson, Sharp, Itochu, Fujitsu, LG, and Samsung.

Carrefour center

Carrefour, the second largest global retailer, opened its first store in Nanjing in 1999 with a joint investment with Jiangsu Yueda Group Co Ltd after it entered Chinese market in 1995, becoming Nanjing's first joint venture supermarket.

Now it has four stores in city with a revenue of about 100 million yuan and over 10 million tax every year.

Carrefour has set up a regional purchase center in the Jiangsu capital.

The center not only serves the market in Jiangsu province, but has also expanded its reach to those in the neighboring provinces.

Largest supplier

Nanjing Ericsson Panda Communication Co Ltd located in Jiangning Economic Development Zone is a joint venture founded in 1992.

It is Ericsson's first joint venture and largest enterprise in China.

It has witnessed China's fast development of telecommunications in the past 19 years and snatched a lion's market share. It is now the system supply center in Asia Pacific region.

Ford's fast track

Nanjing Ford, a joint venture by Ford Motor Company, Mazda Motor Co and Chang'an Ford Mazda Motor Corp, was founded on April 19, 2005.

Though it is a relative latecomer, it has entered a full-swing development over the past six years.

Within two years, it opened a car plant as part of its catch-up plan in the world's second-biggest and fast-growing vehicle market on Sept 24, 2007.

By 2010, it had produced over 140,000 cars with a total output value of 10 billion yuan.

As one of China's largest joint ventures in the area of petrochemical, BASF-YPC has witnessed a fast growth over the past 10 years.

The first stage of the project started in September 2001 with an investment of $2.9 billion after the Chinese authorities approved the feasibility study in June 2000.

It took less than four years before the new steamcracker and nine downstream plants were successfully started up in June, 2005.

At the end of last year, BASF and Sinopec signed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly explore the further expansion of their integrated petrochemical joint venture, BASF-YPC Co Ltd.

This includes both the construction of new plants and a capacity increase of existing plants. The new investments under consideration collectively total approximately $1 billion.

ARC gets foothold

ARC International is a French manufacturer and distributor of household goods with a history of over 200 years.

In September 1999, the company reached an agreement with Nanjing Light Industry Group Co Ltd to establish Arc Glassware (Nanjing) Co Ltd in Nanjing Economy & Technology Development Zone.

Since the founding of the company, it has expanded its investment twice with a present capital injection of $99.9 million.

(China Daily 06/01/2011 page39)