Shanghai Daily News

Shanghai Shibei Industrial New Zone, as the only industrial park in the urban area, sees brilliant prospects to attract investment from home and abroad.
By June, 1,034 enterprises engaged in electronic communications industry, biomedical industry and print media had settled in the 121-hectare zone, an investment of 2.22 billion yuan (US$267 million).
Industrial output from the zone hit 833.65 million yuan from January to August this year, up 21 percent.
China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom have all launched data conversion centers there, while last year Japan's SNK Air Conditioning Ltd opened its US$6.88 million Chinese headquarters in the zone.
"Those high-tech companies are always our first choice when introducing enterprises," said Wang Ruobing, vice general manager of Shanghai Shibei Industrial New Zone Investment and Management Co Ltd.
Her words were supported by the statistics: From January to August, the industrial output from electronic communications sector in the zone hit 560 million yuan or 67.5 percent of the total.
The advantages for the zone are plenty of state-owned enterprises and its closeness to high quality educational resources such as Shanghai University.
"We are also adjacent to several residential communities that offer a large highly skilled and productive workforce," Wang said.
The only difficulty for the zone is the relatively high cost of land compared with other suburban areas.
The zone owns the state-level Shanghai University Science and Technology Park Shibei Industrial Park, as well as two specialized parks, Shanghai Printing Media Park and Shanghai Industrial Design Park.
"With the rapid development of the city, preferential policies are offered in almost every industrial zone and are no longer the key to attracting investment," said Wang.
"We are committed to pioneering and developing a 'people-oriented' business environment supported by outstanding customer service."
While the zone has been operating for 11 years, it is now engaging in its second phase of development, which covers a total floor area of 572,000 square meters and is due for completion by the end of 2007.
The developing area is designed with strong emphasis in harmony with the nature, with 45 percent of the zone to be green once completed.