Shanghai - Shanghai Minhang Economic and Technological Development Zone

Shanghai Minhang Economic and Technological Development Zone (Shanghai Minhang ETDZ)

Facts and Figures (2007)

Source: Ministry of Commerce of P.R. China

Introduction

The Shanghai Minhang Economic- and Technological-Development Zone (Shanghai Minhang ETDZ) was set up in 1983, and was among the first fourteen state-level development zones approved by the State Council in 1986. It is located in the south-west part of the Minhang District, being a distance of only 30 km from People's Square in Shanghai, and covers an area of 6.52 km².

The Shanghai Minhang ETDZ is easily accessible. It takes only 10 minutes to the Shanghai Hongqiao Airport and a mere 30 minutes to the Shanghai Pudong International Airport, which was the busiest airport in China in terms of cargo throughput in 2007. The cargo wharf of the zone is located by the Huangpu River, while the 10,000-ton Longwugang International Sea Terminal is 15 km away, and the 10,000-ton Zhangxinbang International Container Terminal is 43 km away. The zone is linked with other national highways and railway networks by the Shanghai-Nanjing Expressway, the Shanghai-Hangzhou Expressway and the Xinmin Railway.

Shanghai is not only the economic and financial hub of China, but also one of the educational hubs on the mainland. In 2007, there were sixty universities and colleges operational in Shanghai. The number of graduates in Shanghai reached 118,512 in 2007.

Investment Climate

The Shanghai Minhang ETDZ consists of five functional areas: the main area, the main industrial area, the comprehensive area, the heavy equipment industrial area and the logistics area. It won approval from the State Council to develop a port industrial park in 2006. The port industrial park, with a designated area of 13.3 km², is close to the Yangshan Free Trade Area to the east, and a 1,000-ton wharf to the west.

In 2007, the GDP of the zone rose 16% year-on-year to RMB 14.8 billion, contributing to 15% to the GDP of Minhang District. By the end of 2007, it had accumulatively attracted ninety-seven foreign-funded projects, with total investment exceeding US$2.4 billion. The contractual foreign investments had amounted to US$1.4 billion by the end of 2007, with utilized FDI adding up to US$1.2 billion. Within fifteen years, it has successfully encouraged thirty-seven Fortune 500 enterprises to invest there.

In 2007, the gross industrial output from the zone reached RMB 41.8 billion, comprising 12.7% of Minxing District's total. It has formed three major industries, namely mechanical and electronic, pharmaceuticals and food and beverages industries. The major investors there include GE, ABB, Michelin, Siemens, Fuji Xerox, Yili, Pepsi, Coca Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Schneider, et cetera.

Huntsman, the leading special-chemical manufacturer in the world, entered the zone in 1996. It invested US$10 million in its plans to build the largest mixing plant in Asia within the zone in the same year. Later, in 2006, Huntsman invested US$1 billion with BASF, Bayer and Lianheng to construct a project of which the sole goal was the production of MDI and related products. In 2008, it set up its third global R&D center in the Minhang ETDZ, of which the intention was to provide state-of-the-art technologies and services to all the customers in the Asia Pacific region.

The France-based St. Gobain, the top global construction-materials maker, made its earliest presence known in the zone in 1994, with the inauguration of St. Bobain Abrasives (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. Currently, the French firm has five units in Minhang ETDZ. It launched its R&D center in the zone in September, 2007, to strengthen its position in China's construction materials market.