Jiangsu - Yangzhou Export Processing Zone (Yangzhou EPZ)

Yangzhou Export Processing Zone (Yangzhou EPZ)

Facts and Figures (2007)

Source: Yangzhou Export Processing Zone

Introduction

The Yangzhou Export Processing Zone (Yangzhou EPZ) was approved by the State Council in 2005 and is located in the Yangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone in the Jiangsu Province, within the Yangtze River Delta, covering an area of 3 km². Currently, the first phase of construction, with an area of 1.52 km², has been completed.

Yangzhou EPZ is a distance of 270 km away from Shanghai to the east, and 100 km away from Nanjing to the west. It is close to the Yangzhou Port, which has an annual cargo-throughput capacity of over 10-million tons. The Beijing-Shanghai Expressway and the Nanning-Nantong Expressway intersect in its home city, while the Yangzhou Railway Station, which offers direct routes to Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan and Xi’an, is within twenty minutes’ drive. Although there is not an airport in Yangzhou, the travel time is only one hour to the Nanjing Lukou International Airport, and two hours to the Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

Investment Climate

Yangzhou EPZ encourages export-oriented manufacturing, processing and logistic enterprises in electronic information, solar energy, environmental protection, machinery and high-end light industry to invest in this zone.

The zone commenced official operation in April, 2007. By the end of 2007, it had attracted twelve overseas and domestic enterprises to set foot there, with the FDI accumulating to US$220 million, while the export value in the zone hit US$10 million in 2007. Major investors include Suntech Power, EPD, Leda Hardware, Feichi Electrics, Deming Fashion, Hyflux, DHL, Fenghua Auto Parts, Junmao Optical-Electric, etc.

EPD Electronic Power&Electronics was the first company set up in the zone. The firm was invested by the EPD Group, a joint venture of the France-based Bourbon Group and the U.S.-based EPD International Ltd., with an initial investment value of US$5 million. Covering an area of 5,000 m², the company specializes in manufacturing integrated electrical systems. The next company to follow suit was Leda Hardware, a company which invested a total of US$30 million in 2006 in an industrial plant for garden, forest and agriculture machines. The project commenced operation in 2007.

Suntech Power, the headquarters of which are located in Wuxi, is a leading solar energy solutions provider in China; Suntech Power planned to invest US$1 billion into a crystalline-silicon solar-cells producing line in the Yangzhou EPZ in 2007. The first phase of the project received US$98 million, and has an annual designed-production capacity of 3,000 mega-watts. The project is scheduled for completion in June, 2008.