Guangdong - Shantou Free Trade Zone

Shantou Free Trade Zone  

Facts and Figures (2007)

Source: Administration Committee of Shantou Free Trade Zone    

Introduction

Shantou Free Trade Zone (Shantou FTZ) is located in the southern part of Shantou, in the Pearl River Delta. Shantou FTZ was approved to be a state-level development zone by the State Council in 1993, with a planned area of 2.3 km². It is the sixth state-level free trade zone in Guangdong Province.

Geographically, Shantou neighbors Chaozhou to the north and Jieyang to the west. It is only one-hundred and eighty-seven nautical miles away from Hong Kong and one-hundred and eighty nautical miles from Kaohsiung in Taiwan. Shantou Port, one of twenty major ports in China, handled 23 million tons of cargos and 0.6 million TEUs in 2007. There is a 40,000-tonnage berth in Shantou FTZ.

Shantou FTZ is also easily accessible via railway, highway and airway. Guangzhou-Meizhou-Shantou Railway and Beijing-Kowloon Railway link the city with other major cities in China, while Shenzhen-Shantou Highway and Shantou-Fenshui Highway connect Shantou with Shenzhen and Xiamen, both of which are also special economic zones. Shantou Waisha Airport, within one hour’s drive from the zone, offers forty-six domestic and international routes weekly.

Investment Climate

Shantou Special Economic Zone is one of the five special economic zones in China (Shantou, Zhuhai, Shenzhen, Xiamen and Hainan Province). It enjoys special economic policies and flexible government measures as do other special economic zones. In 2007, the GDP of Shantou rose 13% from the previous year to RMB 85 billion, ranking eleventh in Guangdong Province-the largest economy in China in terms of its GDP in 2007.

Shantou FTZ mainly encourages investments in the logistics and warehousing sectors. It also encourages investments by export-oriented enterprises to establish their businesses there. By the first half of 2005, the foreign-trade value of the logistics firms in the zone accumulated to US$181 million. The domestic sales revenue of the logistics firms added up to RMB 1.8 billion in the same period.

Shantou has attracted investments from many firms, such as Wilson, CAT, Bayer, APL Logistics and other domestic firms. FG Wilson (Shantou FTZ) Power was set up in 2001 with an initial investment value of US$2 million from the fully-owned subsidiary of Caterpillar, the U.S.-based tool-, engine- and equipment-maker.

Kolorful Industrial Co. Ltd. was set up by Lanli, Hong Kong-based Kolorful and U.S.-based VCL in 1999, with a total investment value of RMB 70 million. The company is a food-processing firm. The annual output value of the firm is around RMB 150 million.