European surge at Sino-German zone

Foshan is anticipating a surge in European investors and industrial service providers, especially from Germany, following the establishment of Foshan Sino-German Industrial Services Zone.

With a planned area of 26 square kilometers, construction at the zone began earlier this year. Target service companies range from R&D and design to testing and certification, new IT, new energy, biomedicine, convention and exhibitions, and occupational training.

The zone is expected to be operational in three years with a 200,000-sq-m high-tech industrial service R&D facility to be home to 300 to 500 high-tech firms and research institutions.

When in full operation in five years, it aims to be a model zone meeting international standards with management and a business environment similar to Germany.

The idea to set up the Sino-German industrial services zone came in June 2011 when Wang Yang, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee andprovincial Party secretary of Guangdong, visited Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft in Germany.

The senior official proposed that Guangdong province should forge co-operative ties with the leading R&D institute in Europe. Foshan was later chosen for the partnership.

"The zone will be a shot in the arm for our city's new round of industrial development," said Li Yiwei, Party secretary of Foshan.

The zone is expected be a magnet for high-tech industrial service firms from home and abroad, said Liu Yuelun, mayor of Foshan.

It was included in the joint statement by the Ministry of Commerce and the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology of Germany in August, giving it status as a co-operative project between China and Germany.

Existing investment by German businesses is also one of the main reasons for establishing the Sino-German zone, analysts said.

"The enterprises are in need of on-hand, high-end industrial services and the zone will help to attract many other industrial service providers and investors in Germany as well as other European countries," they said. Foshan has several German ventures including the auto partnership FAW-Volkswagen, lighting company Osram, a Messer-Deli gas project, an extrusion system by Battenfeld-Cincinnati, dental company Sirona, a coating and sealant project by Actega, metal stamping by Enders Colsman and the chemical business Wacker Dymatic Silicones.

zhanlisheng@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 11/09/2012 page24)