Hefei, capital of eastern China's Anhui province, is the center of the whole province's politics, economics, transportation, culture and education. But these modern strengths are not the city's only bragging points. Hefei is also an ancient city with a history of over 2 thousand years. Its beautiful scenery and advantageous geographical location also draw visitors and business people here every year. Hefei today is developing at a rapid pace, especially in science and technology.
Here at the foot of Dashu Mountain in west Hefei is the city's newest high-tech zone. In October 1990, the construction of the Hefei High-Tech Zone began. Soon after that, a modern high-tech industrial park sprang up. In the past, the majority of Anhui province was agricultural. But in late 1980s, when much of the world was revolutionized by high-tech, Anhui's provincial government decided to re-focus its traditional production and establish a high-tech industrial park.
This high-tech industrial park is in the suburbs of Hefei, developing parallel to bustling downtown Hefei. The park has four main areas: the administration area, the newly developed area, the actually high-tech park, and the incubator area. The entire park, which covers an area of 88 square kilometers, is the workplace of 150 thousand employees.
Hefei's High-tech Zone aims to create a first class environment for top global enterprises to do business. The zone is designed with efficiency in mind. Transportation here is smooth and convenient, with frequent routes coming in from downtown. To date, more than 1.3 million square meters of factory plants and service facilities have been built.
In order for the park's businesses to acquire the latest information, a fiber-optic high-speed network was established in 2000. Hefei's High-Tech park is now one of the most connected high-tech zones in all of China.
Thanks to the foresight of city planners, the high-tech park was also built with environmental protection in mind. More than a place for business, the garden-like park is a place where people and nature can coexist in harmony.
The high-tech park's green space accounts for about 42% of its total space. We provide the enterprises here with a satisfactory variety of facilities and service. Both the living and developing conditions are quite good.
Many high-tech enterprises have now established their bases in Hefei's park. Prevalent industries here include micro-electronics and electronic information technology, photoelectric technology, material science, medical science and biomedical engineering.
Anhui Anke Biotechnology is one of the park's success stories. Song Lihua, Anke's founder, studied biology in Germany. He took his degree and returned to his hometown to establish Anke. His company aims to turn research into production and help develop domestic biomedical science. Some of Anke's top products are sold on the international market.
Like the rest of the Apec industrial parks, Hefei's High-tech Industrial Park was established with the help of favorable government policies. This zone is Anhui province's own mini silicon valley. Now that it is up and running, investors are able to enjoy convenient services and a healthy business environment.
An extensive administration office was set up here to deal with daily administrative maters. In addition, the comprehensive service system includes a police station, courthouse, legal and accounting services, customs office, shipping and storage services. Many commercial banking organizations like Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China have set up branch offices here. The administration aims to provide top 'streamline' service for enterprises. This 'streamline'
service means that all necessary administrative departments must have branch offices here. This way, businesses here can save time and effort on logistical issues.
This is the hall of streamline service, where the goal is to provide enterprises the most efficient service possible. In the past, they had to spend a lot of time going to all the different departments. But now, they can process all of these procedures in one place.
The administration reports directly to the city government of Hefei and was given the authority to deal with the park's day to day administration. Now they are trying their best to continue to improve service for the enterprises.
Every administrative officer is assigned to supervise service for 3 to 5 enterprises. This way, we can identify problems right away. We regularly send personnel to the enterprises to get their feedback and suggestions.
Masahiko Maeda has been doing business in China for many years. He feels that the administration at Hefei's high-tech park is very efficient.
They often come to our company to see if the service and facilities are good. The government and the administration has done a lot to support us by offering us favorable policies and top service. So I want to thank them for that now. Our company wouldn't have done as well without their support.
This is the most unprecedented part of the park. It functions as a business incubator that assists newer small and mid-sized enterprises.
Li Zhiqun is one of the park's many entrepreneurs who was able to establish his business with the help of the park. In 1998, he came back to China after studying in France. But due to lack of funding, he couldn't start production yet. It was this park that provided Li with a factory and the necessary equipment.
The hardest time was when we had successfully finished product research, and we knew that our products would be good, but we didn't have the funds to have them tested. When the park heard about our problem, they tried very hard to help us. They went to discuss it with the provincial personnel department, which really gave us a lot of support. Now I think if I had set up my enterprise in some other place, I wouldn't have done as well. Maybe we'd already be bankrupt.
The park's favorable business environment has attracted many enterprises to set up shop here. Those that are already established here are growing rapidly. After several years of development, this high-tech park is on the verge of another rapid phase of development.
In 1997, at the national conference for APEC High-tech Industrial Parks, Hefei's High-tech Industrial Park was admitted as one of China's 5 industrial parks open to APEC. Becoming a part of APEC meant that Hefei's park had opened further to the outside world and would have more international businesses moving in.
On September 24, 1998, Chinese President Jiang Zemin went to visit Hefei's park. He praised the park's rapid and healthy development.
APEC brings Hefei's High-tech park into a brand new period of development. Once it was opened up to APEC, international investment flooded in. Foreign investors from more than 20 countries and regions set up factories here. By 2001, over 700 enterprises had made investments here worth more than 10 billion yuan, or about 1.3 billion US dollars. The Hefei Apec High-tech industrial park has become an ideal place for international and domestic companies to prosper.
Our municipal government has closely cooperated with APEC. In Hefei, we have ample support from research institutions like China University of Science and Technology, and the branch institution of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. They are carrying out several national key experiments that can all be accessible to APEC members.
As one of China's 4 science bases, Hefei enjoys a strong scientific research foundation. Amidst this environment, high-tech research institutes are able to thrive. This is also home to research centers and production of superconductors. Hefei's scientific research institutions are the backbone of the city's economy. They also provide a platform for high-tech exchange between China and other APEC member countries.
There are many higher learning institutions in Hefei like China University of Science and Technology, Hefei University of Industry, Anhui University, Anhui Medical University and so on. All these universities are cooperating with APEC in scientific research. Hefei has a good foundation for human resources, with the country's second highest rate of people getting university degrees. Moreover, now that Hefei is so developed, more and more people are willing to stay here and work.
Hefei now has adequate human resources, but what we need to improve now is the environment for them to work in. We must work on our environment and service for high-tech enterprises to try to attract more of them to come here.
Hefei's APEC High-tech Industrial Park has now become one of the top high-tech bases and experimental zones in China. Using its scientific strength and economic success, it also serves as a platform for Hefei to communicate with the outside world.
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