Investment Environment

Foreign-Oriented Services

Zhejiang, a coastal province with a high degree of opening up to the outside world, enjoys a favorable investment environment. Attaching great importance to foreign-related administration and services, it has timely revised and improved foreign-oriented economic regulations and policies for accelerating its conformity with WTO rules. In addition, it has introduced regulations for improving investment environment and favorable measures for promoting direct foreign investment. Such systems as public notification and making replies within the prescribed number of working days have been instituted and consolidated, and an on-line examination and approval system has also been introduced. The right of approval for foreign invested projects has been further decentralized, the approval approach improved, procedures simplified and the examination and approval conduct standardized for easy consultation and supervision on the part of applicants. Certificates of foreign experts are issued to provide guarantee for foreign experts to work and live in Zhejiang as well as for their entry and exit. Acting according to law, the customs office, commodity inspection, finance and taxation departments offer convenient services to investors. Database for projects utilizing foreign investment has been widely established in various localities. Large-scale activities inviting investments are held to further attract foreign investment. The enterprise credit inquiring system is now in operation.

Transport, Telecommunication and Postal Services

Zhejiang is served by a railway transport network with Hangzhou as the hub and consisting of several railway lines, respectively running between Shanghai and Hangzhou, Zhejiang and Jiangxi, Xiaoshan and Ningbo, Xuancheng and Hangzhou, Jinhua and Wenzhou and so on. By the end of 2002, 1,207 kilometers of railways had been put into operation, in which 593 kilometers had double tracks. Preparation for key projects including the second phase of the Jinhua-Lishui-Wenzhou Expressway, the Hangzhou Bay Bridge, the Wenzhou-Fuzhou Railway and the Ningbo-Taizhou-Wenzhou Railway has achieved important progress. The length of the existing six national highways and 66 provincial highways totaled 45,000 kilometers, of which 1,307 kilometers were expressways. The "four-hour highway ring" connecting the provincial capital of Hangzhou with all prefectural cities on the land area has been realized. Zhejiang is served with seven airports located in Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Zhoushan, Yiwu, Taizhou and Quzhou and linked up with the outside by 185 domestic and international air routes. The first-phase project of the Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport with a handling capacity of 14.5 million passengers annually has been commissioned.

Along the coastal line of 240 kilometers appropriate for port construction, a port group including five very large ones at Ningbo, Wenzhou, Zhoushan, Zhapu and Haimen has emerged. The Ningbo Port is a large complex with a handling capacity of 100 million tons, and 35 deepwater berths all at or above the 10,000-ton level. Among them, there are international container docks of the 5th and 6th generations and a mineral ore wharf of 200,000 tonnage (capable for accommodating ships of 300,000 tonnage), a crude oil wharf with a tonnage of 250,000 and a fluid chemical wharf of 80,000 tonnage. The port is linked with 73 container sea routes, which constitute a global sea transport system with the exception of Australia. In 2002, the Ningbo Port handled 153.98 million tons of cargo and continued to maintain its position as the second largest port along China's mainland coast. In handling containers, it fulfilled a task of 185,900 tons TEU, with an increase of 53.3 percent over that of the same period of the previous year. This growth rate ranked the first among major ports along the mainland coast for the fourth year running.

An express postal transport network based on multiple means including air, railway and highway transportation has primarily taken shape in Zhejiang. Four airmail bureaus of Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou and Jinhua and the Hangzhou international mail exchange center have been established. By the end of 2002, the total capacity of telephone switchboards in Zhejiang reached 18.8 million units, that of long-distance telephones 362,000 units and that of mobile phones 18.88 million units. The mobile phone service covers all cities at and above the county level. Zhejiang stands in the front ranks in the country in the application of IT such as digital telecom, information service and telephone intelligence business. The province also leads the country in the application public digital telecom and the coverage of videophone for conference services.

Energy

Zhejiang is one of the provinces advanced in the utilization of multiple-source power generation including hydro, thermal, wind, tide and nuclear power. Large thermal power plants include the Beilun, Zhenhai, Taizhou, Wenzhou, Jiaxing and Changxing and large and medium-size hydropower plants on the Xin誥n, Fuchun, Wuxi and Jinshuitan rivers, the Tianhuangping Pumping Power Station, the second-phase projects of Beilun Power Plant and the second-phase project of Wenzhou Power Plant have all been completed and launched into service. The generators with a capacity of 6,000 kilowatts add up to an installed generating capacity of 18.31 million kilowatts. The Qinshan Nuclear Power Station is the first of its kind independently designed and constructed by China itself. Its first-phase construction has completed with a generating set of 300,000-kilowatt capacity installed and operating in the power grid. Part of the second-and third-phase construction has also been put into production. The Jiangxia Tidal Power Station in Wenling of Taizhou has an installed capacity of 3,200 kilowatts, taking the 3rd place in the world. Construction of large coastal power generators such as the Huaneng Yuhuan Power Plant, the Guohua Ninghai Power Plant and the third-phase of the Wenzhou Power Plant as well the preliminary work for the Tankeng Power Station has made important headway. The projects that are underway for the key water control project on the Fenshui River, the second-phase construction for the Jiaxing Power Plant and the Tongbai Pumped-water Storage Power Station are all going smoothly.

Economic and Technological Development Zone

There are 8 national development zones and 54 provincial economic development zones in Zhejiang with a total investment of 54.98 billion yuan for infrastructure and an area of 491.5 square kilometers. These development zones have become hot spots for domestic and foreign investors. In 2002, US $1.83 billion worth of overseas investment which amounted to 58 percent of the total figure in the province was actually used in these development zones.The industrial structure in the development zones is increasingly rational. As a result, the number of first and tertiary sectors including agriculture, transportation, post and telecommunication beside manufacturing has registered marked increase.

Source: Zhejiang Online