Provincial park attractive to investors

AIA's Asia-Pacific finance center will soon be operational.

Japanese multinational Fujitsu Technology Corp recently opened a world-class data center in Guangdong High-Tech Service Zone for Financial Institutions.

Involving an investment of $29.5 million, the new facility is the company's first data center in China. Its establishment marks a milestone in the zone's quest to attract financial investments.

"The zone is gaining growing favor among investors, and the strategy to develop back-office operations while exploring front-office ones has proven feasible," said Deng Weigen, Party secretary of Foshan's Nanhai district, where the zone is located.

The latest official statistics indicate that the zone secured 27 financial projects in the first three quarters of the year. Registered capital and investment totaled nearly 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) and more than 40 more projects are in reserve.

A total of 96 projects had settled in the zone by the end of September. The zone had accumulated registered capital and investment totaling more than 27 billion yuan since it was founded in 2007.

Of the projects, 15 are related to back-office operations and service outsourcing, seven are in banking, four are insurance firms, four are in securities, 64 run private equity and venture capital businesses, and two are in financing and leasing.

"The cluster effect of the financial industry has taken shape now that most of the projects have started operations," the official said.

More than 70 projects are up and running, including the southern information center of the People's Insurance Co (Group) of China, the business process outsourcing center for France's Capgemini Group and the service outsourcing center for IBM.

And several more are expected to become operational by 2013, including the southern international training center of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, American International Assurance (AIA)'s Asia-Pacific finance center, the southern China international financial center of Sun Hung Kai Financial Ltd and the financial operations of China Guangfa Bank.

The zone's achievements are also attributable to the local government's promotional efforts as well as the advantageous positioning and improving investment climate of the zone, analysts said.

The local government has launched promotional campaigns in Beijing, Hong Kong and Singapore almost every year since 2008, and representatives of the zone will soon go to the United States in November.

Designed as a high-tech service zone for back-office operations, the zone is interested in expanding into such areas as financial innovation; R&D; data processing; clearing and settlement; financial information and consulting; real-time call answering; disaster recovery; training; insurance asset management; bankcards; private equity, and venture capital.

It has a favorable investment climate due to geographical advantages and a convenient transportation network as well as cost advantages, human resources and competitive IT infrastructure, analysts said.

Only a 15-minute drive from the new Guangzhou railway station and 35 minutes from the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, the zone is bisected by the Guangzhou-Foshan metro, the first intercity metro in China, which has three stops inside the zone.

And it will take less than one hour to reach Hong Kong once the new express train between Guangzhou and Hong Kong soon becomes operational.

The cost of property in the zone is 30 percent of that of Guangzhou, while wages and related costs are about 60 percent.

Human resources are plentiful due to efforts by the provincial government to promote the urban integration of Guangzhou and Foshan as well as the zone's new measures to pool human resources.

And the zone's other infrastructure, such as telecom or IT services, power supply or public facilities, is comparable to that of any big city across the nation.

zhanlisheng@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 11/23/2012 page12)