special ‘Investment magnet’ attracts more capital from home and abroad

By FU CHAO develop an integrated cir- [email protected] cuit R&D project in Chengdu 269 Science Park. The project C hengdu’s High-tech is worth 500 million yuan large projects Industrial Development ($78.5 million). Zone and Tianfu New Area Construction Tech- Chengdu has sealed in the first has lined up a range of new nology Consulting Co will half of this year projects this year, which has invest more than 600 million attracted investors around yuan to build a factory for the world. architecture materials. stration area. “It is like a magnet for University has set BASF, a German chemical investment with a cluster up funds with the Chengdu company, plans to set up a of very many innovative committee of the new area global engineering design resources,” said Wang Jianya, to support entrepreneur- center in the high-tech zone. chairman of Nokia China, ship and innovation. Both WorleyParsons, Australia’s when talking about Tianfu have also stepped up efforts biggest engineering com- New Area. to develop an international pany and partner of BASF’s On April 23, Nokia China medical center and a hospital engineering projects, will also Investment Co signed an in the new area. set up facilities in the zone agreement with the Chengdu Wang said that a well-devel- with investment of 120 mil- committee of the new area oped industrial chain and the lion yuan. to build the telecommunica- city’s high-speed economic Among the eight projects, tions giant’s global research growth are what attracted three with investment of and development center in Nokia to the area. According more than 3.8 billion yuan the new area’s Chengdu Sci- to Wang, the R&D center in will be in the high-tech zone’s ence Park. Chengdu will focus on core Singapore-Sichuan High-tech Both the area and zone network technology and net- Innovation Park. focus on high-end industry work convergence. The center The park is the only indus- promotion to appeal to inves- has already employed a team trial and innovation park in tors, according to local offi- of 800 and it is still expand- western China jointly devel- cials. ing. Wang said the Chengdu oped by Singapore and Sich- project is a significant step uan province, making it an The capital city of Southwest China’s Sichuan province shows its charms to investors around the world in both business and living Tianfu New Area for Nokia’s restructuring and important player in promot- environment. photos provided to China Daily Tianfu New Area was upgrading. ing cooperation between Sin- founded in 2010 and covers According to the economy gapore and inland regions of the province’s three cities, and development bureau of China. data, by the end of 2025, the seven counties and 37 town- Chengdu Tianfu New Area, The park is also a potential high-tech zone’s total value ships, including Chengdu, the biggest advantage of the candidate to for the upcom- output will reach 1.5 tril- and . The sec- new area is in the integrated ing third State-level coopera- lion yuan and will be home tion in Chengdu accounts for development of high-end tion project expected between to 20,000 technology enter- 82 percent of the whole area. industries. The new area is China and Singapore. prises. The new area was approved focusing on advanced man- According to the high-tech According to the invest- as a State-level new area in ufacturing, modern service zone, in the future it will ment promotion bureau of 2014. Since then, it has been and agriculture. keep focusing on its back- Chengdu, the city attracted backed up with national bone industries, including 269 large projects during the strategies at the top of the High-tech industrial zone new information technology, first half of this year, account- nation’s agenda. On May 13, eight large proj- biology, high-end equipment, ing for 64 percent of the year’s On the day the Nokia agree- ect deals from companies energy saving and environ- objective. ment was signed, deals for around the world were signed ment protection, as well as It also agreed on 24 new three more large projects due in the high-tech zone with a producer services. Some projects from Fortune 500 to be set up in the Chengdu total worth of more than 4.5 emerging industries pro- companies with total invest- section of the new area were billion yuan. moted in the country’s latest ment of 39.8 billion yuan. The also signed. In June, Chengdu High- strategies, such as high-end move brings the number of Goke Microelectronics Co, tech Industrial Development software and new informa- Fortune 500 companies in the an integrated circuit design Zone received approval from tion services, are also on the city to 268, topping that of all company based in Changsha the State Council to build the high-tech zone’s agenda. cities in the western China Tianfu Software Park in Chengdu High-tech Industrial Development Zone is one of the professional in Hunan province, plans to nation’s innovation demon- According to the area’s region. software parks in China that enjoys the fastest growth.