Investment Enviroment -- Ideal Investment Place

Advantageous Location

The open door and reform policy adopted 20 years ago has brought radical changes in China, with pioneer reforms bringing unprecedented prosperity to the coastal areas. These reforms are sweeping across the country, moving from the coastal cities to the interior provinces.

With a total land area of 139,000 square kilometers and a population of 62 million, Anhui is the gateway to the central China boasting of dual advantageous conditions of both coastal and inland areas. Its role as a linkage of the east and the west china is getting more and more signified. Shanghai, Spearheads the drive for reform in the vast Yangtze River Economic Belt is pushing its neighboring province, Anhui to the forefront of rapid economic development. Anhui now is becoming the fast economic development area in China and the new ideal place for the foreign investor to turn their hopes into reality.

Abundant Resources

Anhui is endowed with abundant natural resources. With its reserves of coal, iron, copper, pyrite and twenty other important minerals, it is a major supplier of mineral resources in China. This wealth of minerals provides favorable conditions for the development of the power generation and manufacturing industries. The iron and steel complex at Ma'anshan, a modern petrochemical complex at Anqing, the nonferrous industry base at Tongling and the integrated coal and gas wealth at Huainan and Huaibei are but some examples.

As a major agricultural province, Anhui has 4.33 million hectares of fertile farmland. The climate is mild, and rainfall is plentiful. The diversified landforms and regional patterns are suitable for the growth of plants. The output of cereal, cotton, vegetable oils, tea, fruits, medicinal herbs and livestock products ranks amongst the 10th in the country.

Anhui is renowned for its beautiful landscape, boasting of Mt. Huangshan, an international tourist attraction, Mt. Jiuhuashan, a sacred Buddhist', and Qiyunshan, the Taoist', and other famous mountains and lakes such as Taiping Lake. Specifically, Mt. Huangshan has been listed in UNESCO's "World Heritage" as "a dual heritage of culture and nature".

In human resources, Anhui is a rich pool of scientific and technical personnel. Hefei, the provincial capital, where the University of Science and Technology of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei Branch, and many other research institutes are located, is one of the most important education and research centers in the country. The ratio of professionals and technicians per thousand employees is one of the highest in the city of same level as Hefei in China. This wealth of technical manpower makes Anhui an ideal place for development of high-tech industry.

Good Infrastructure facilities

Anhui has advanced telecommunication network with its comprehensive standard ranks among the forefront of the country. It is the third province which has realized digitized telecommunication in all the cities and counties. The program-controlled telephone exchange system and digitized long-distance transmission system have been adopted widely both at the county level and above. The mobile communication network has covered the entire province.

It has also formed a relatively integrated transportation and communication network. Its' railway density is the highest in eastern China. Highway infrastructure and waterway transportation is the second and third most developed in central China respectively. Six major airports, Hefei, Huangshan, Fuyang, Wuhu, Anqing and Bengbu link Anhui with 29 large and medium-sized cities in other parts of the country. In addition, there are direct flights to Hong Kong from Hefei and Huangshan. The railway network spans 3080 km, and when the Beijing--Kowloon Railway and Fuyang--Hefei railway are fully operational, Anhui will become a railway hub in the vast central China. The highway network mileage amounts to 39,264 km, the Hefei-Nanjing-Shanghai expressway links the Yangtze River Delta region. The Tongling Yangtze River Bridge has been completed, and construction of the Wuhu Yangtze River Highway and Railway Bridge is in Progress. World-class ports have been built at four major Yangtze River cities: Wuhu, Ma'anshan, Tongling, and Anqing. The Wuhu and Tongling ports are authorized to be open to the ocean-going vessels, providing direct sea-route links from Anhui to Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and other major ports.

A Fast Growing Economy

Anhui has experienced an unprecedented economic growth in recent years. GDP increased rapidly and continuously during the 1991-- 1999 period, with an average annual growth rate of 12.8 percent, 2.4 percent above the national average. Especially, during the "Eighth Five-year Plan" period, the GDP of Anhui increased annually by 14.1%, with a growth rate ranking second among the provinces in China. Consequently, Anhui's GDP quadrupled five years ahead of schedule.

Anhui has become one of the new growth centers in terms of rapid economic development in the nation, both in economic structure and product mix. Industrialization has increased dramatically. Comprehensive agricultural production capacity has improved; export volume through foreign trade has increased considerably, and living standards has improved significantly.

During the Ninth Five-year Plan period, and till the year 2010, Anhui will strive to maintain its economic growth rate above the national average. It aimed to double its 1995's GDP by the year 2000. It will double that again by 2010. The three major development goals are to transform Anhui from a large agricultural province to a highly productive province, from a rich-resources province to a diversified industrial province, and from a large-population province to an economically powerful province. To fulfill these objectives, Anhui will pursue three strategies of rejuvenating itself with the aid of science and education, encouraging the export-oriented economy and permeating the sustained development. The second strategy means that Anhui will open its economy to international markets and mobilize both the domestic and global resources to speed the pace of the modernization drive.

Opening in all-round way

At present, Anhui is already established economic and trade relationship with more than 170 countries and districts and sister city relationship with 26 cities from 15 countries including Japan, United States, Germany, Italy. "the outside impetus" has already been one of the three development strategies of Anhui. Export-oriented economy now acts as the important power for the development of Anhui's economy.

Anhui boasts of three State-level development zones( Hefei New& High Tech Industrial Development Zone, Wuhu Economic & Technological Development Zone and Hefei Economic and Technology Development Zone) and 18 province-level Development Zones, among which the Hefei State New & High Industrial Development Zone has been approved by the State Council to be the Scientific Industrial Garden specially opening to the members of APEC.21 Provincial level development zones have already been approved by the provincial government.

By the end of 1999, entrepreneurs and industrialists from over 40 countries and regions had set up their businesses in Anhui, with foreign funded enterprises totalling 4200. Now Anhui has already preliminarily formed an all-round opening pattern with mutiple layers and the the export-oriented economy. The region with "one-line, two-spot" structure including cities along the Yangtze river Wuhu, Maanshan, Tongling, Anqing and Hefei , Huangshan has taken the lead in forming a export-oriented economic region with high degree of opening, flexible system and strong development power. The Beijing-Kowloon railway, Europe-Asia Continent Bridge and other areas along the communication artery is also getting to be the focus for opening to the outside world.