Pingshan High-tech Zone aims for global status

 Shenzhen will provide all the necessary assistance to help Pingshan High-tech Zone to attain world-class status, city officials said at a press conference at the Civic Center in Futian CBD yesterday.

While clarifying the city government’s vision for the high-tech zone in Pingshan District, the officials from relevant government departments also pointed out bottleneck problems that are hindering the high-quality development of Shenzhen High-tech Zone. City officials hope that Pingshan High-tech Zone will play its part to help alleviate these problems that are related to industrial layout, supplementary services and city-industry integration, DT News reported.

Pingshan High-tech Zone, which aims to become globally competitive, will have four industries as its backbone: integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing industry, biomedical industry, intelligent connected vehicle industry and new-energy industry, Tao Yongxin, Pingshan’s Party chief, said yesterday.

Pingshan High-tech Zone, officially unveiled in 2019, is located in eastern Shenzhen and covers an area of 51.6 square kilometers, six times the size of its Nanshan District counterpart.

In the integrated circuit manufacturing field, Pingshan attracted Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), China’s largest semiconductor foundry company, to construct the first 8-inch integrated circuit (IC) production line in South China in 2014, and the first 12-inch line in 2016. SMIC will continue to expand IC production and investment in Pingshan High-tech Zone with upcoming preferential policies and governmental financial support.

BYD, China’s new-energy vehicle manufacturing giant with its headquarters in Pingshan, is about to launch an IC and power semiconductor project in the high-tech zone.

“To achieve the goal of making semiconductor chips by China itself, the city government will strongly support Pingshan High-tech Zone as a core industrial zone of IC in Shenzhen,” said Chen Huaping, deputy director of the Shenzhen Municipal Industry and Information Bureau.

Pingshan Hi-tech Zone also plays a significant role in the development of the city’s biomedical industry. It has introduced the Shenzhen Academy of Medical Sciences, in which a hospital and a biomedical industrial park with international standards is under first-phase construction.

Pingshan will be “a core engine of the biomedical industry in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area,” according to Zeng Jianpeng, deputy head of the Shenzhen Municipal Development and Reform Commission.

In a bid to boost the intelligent connected vehicle industry, the high-tech zone has set up the city’s only smart networked transportation test demonstration platform, where driverless bus and unmanned delivery will be developed and promoted.

Pingshan High-tech Zone is attempting to attract enterprises, institutions and talents from all over the world with its rich land resources, low cost of production and living, comprehensive supporting facilities and livable ecological environment, according to Tao.

At present, Pingshan High-tech Zone possesses the most extensive industrial space in the city. Five projected industrial parks, such as the new-generation information technology park and the Shenzhen-Hong Kong biomedical park, will provide industrial areas of 4 million square meters in 2022.

Tao pledged that projects meeting requirements can enjoy a fixed rental for five years, and high-quality ones will be exempt from 100 percent of their rent.

Qiu Xuan, Party chief of the Shenzhen Municipal Science, Technology and Innovation Commission, also presented the achievements of Shenzhen High-tech Zone at the press conference.

The zone was established in December 1996 with the approval of the State Council. The number of its industrial parks has increased from one to five over the past decades. “These five parks covering 8 percent of the city’s land produced approximately 25.5 percent of the city’s GDP,” said Qiu.

City releases regulation to boost foreign investment

 Shenzhen is mulling to build a mechanism for urgently needed talent, according to a draft foreign investment regulation recently released by the Municipal Justice Bureau for public opinion.

The regulation also said that Shenzhen will streamline procedures for foreign talents to live and work in Shenzhen and issue measures like faster entry in the country to support foreign-funded enterprises. These will make the city more attractive to these talents.

To boost foreign investment, Shenzhen will update plans based on its own situations and let foreign companies enjoy the same support policies designed for local companies.

At the same time, Shenzhen will promote the building of foreign-related public legal service system.

The regulation includes a total of five chapters, with contents concerning investment promotion, protection and management.

City offers support to qualified hi-tech firms

 A total of 1,175 enterprises have been selected into a High-tech Enterprise Incubator program and will receive subsidy and policy support, according to a list published by the Shenzhen Municipal Science and Technology Commission on Monday.

The enterprises under the program will receive 10 percent of their actual expenses in research and development from the previous year. The subsidy for a single enterprise is capped at 3 million yuan (US$460,700). The enterprises will be delisted from the incubator after being accredited as high-tech enterprises within the three-year incubation period.

The enterprises on the incubation list include Shenzhen Yuhong Precision Mould Co. Ltd. and Shenzhen Fortress Information Service Co. Ltd., whose products have shown great market potential.

Another enterprise, Shenzhen Hongjin Technology Co. Ltd., established in 2014, is an innovation-based high-tech company which provides adhesives to users, including OPPO, VIVO, Huawei, Mi, One Plus and Foxconn.

Meanwhile, Shenzhen Ascentawits Pharmaceuticals Ltd., which moved to Shenzhen in 2017, engages in research on anti-cancer drugs. The company has developed small-molecule anti-cancer pre-drug compounds. The compounds are now about to undergo clinical research.

In recent years, Shenzhen has supported the development of high-tech enterprises through multiple channels, including research subsidies of no more than 10 million yuan.

Shenzhen is home to more than 50,000 high-tech enterprises, including 18,650 State-level high-tech enterprises. The output of Shenzhen’s high-tech industry in 2020 was 2.78 trillion yuan, up by 2.7 percent over the previous year. 

The added value was 974.7 billion yuan, up by 2.4 percent over 2019.

SZ appealing to foreign investors

 Shenzhen has long been an apple of foreign investors’ eyes. The city’s 2020 actual use of foreign capital of over US$8.68 billion hit a record high, city officials disclosed at a ceremony marking the launch of the Foreign Investment Service Year on Friday.

Apple Inc., Costco Wholesale Corp., Airbus SE and other well-known international companies have announced or inaugurated their large-scale projects in Shenzhen, the officials said.

The latest data shows from January to February 2021, the city’s actual use of foreign investment was US$940 million, an increase of 17.8 percent year on year.

Shenzhen will further optimize the city’s foreign-invested business environment, officials said Friday.

The government-provided services will include policy publicity conferences, investment promotion panels, and visits to foreign businesses in Shenzhen to solve their practical problems.

Measures will be taken to encourage multinational companies (MNCs) to establish regional headquarters in Shenzhen. MNCs registering US$20-30 million, US$30-50 million and above US$50 million in actual annual use of foreign capital will be rewarded 3 million yuan (US$458,999), 5 million yuan and 6 million yuan, respectivel

City offers rewards for actual foreign investment utilization

 Foreign-funded enterprises can now apply for rewards for actual utilization of new investments involving more than US$30 million in 2020, sources from the Shenzhen Municipal Commerce Bureau showed.

The deadline for the application is May 10.

According to relevant regulations, for new projects involving more than US$50 million and newly added investment involving US$30 million in 2020, authorities will offer rewards at the standard of 2 percent of the actually utilized annual investment, or at a maximum of 100 million yuan (US$15 million).

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the city’s actual foreign investment utilization was US$8.68 billion last year, up by 11 percent over the previous year. Between January and February this year, the actual foreign investment utilization was US$940 million, up by 17.8 percent, statistics showed.

To encourage foreign multinationals to operate in Shenzhen, the city will reward between 3 and 5 million yuan to companies that set up headquarters in Shenzhen with investments between US$20 million and US$50 million. For investments of more than US$50 million, the reward will be 6 million yuan.

The Shenzhen Municipal Commerce Bureau will accept the second round of applications in October.

2,400 foreign-funded firms set up in SZ in first 5 months

 More than 2,400 foreign-invested companies were set up in Shenzhen in the first five months this year, attracting more than US$12.4 billion of contractual foreign investment, Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported Wednesday, quoting the municipal commerce bureau.

The city’s actual use of foreign capital exceeded US$3.1 billion from January to May this year, an increase of 26 percent year on year.

The inflow of foreign investment in newly emerging industries has injected strong impetus into Shenzhen’s drive to build itself into an international innovation-based city and a global commercial and trade hub, the report said.

At Minzhi Subdistrict in Longhua District, work on the South China headquarters of U.S.-based global retailer giant Costco is making its headway, which will house its South China flagship store.

Nike also set up its global technology center in Shenzhen in the first half of the year.

In terms of investment structure, according to the bureau, the tertiary and high-tech industries have absorbed a large proportion of Shenzhen’s foreign direct investment over recent years.

Sectors of next-generation information technology, high-end manufacturing, new materials, biomedicine, finance, commodity circulation and digital economy are preferred by foreign investors.

Shenzhen is ramping up efforts to attract foreign investment by optimizing its business environment and rolling out incentives.

It has introduced a spate of measures to encourage multinational companies to establish regional headquarters and organizations with headquarters functions in the city.

The measures, which highlight a tiered reward system with a maximum reward of 6 million yuan (US$928,000), became effective March 1.

The city has also taken the country’s lead to establish work stations to better serve foreign-funded businesses.

So far, two city-level stations, two district-level stations in Longgang and Longhua districts, and 10 in key industrial parks across the city have been set up.

Foreign-funded enterprises account for only 2 percent of business entities in Shenzhen. However, they generate about one-fifth of the city’s GDP, 40 percent of its import and export volume, and nearly 30 percent of its tax revenue every year, 2020 data from the commerce bureau showed.

Workstations bring convenience to foreign-invested firms in city

 The Shenzhen Municipal Commerce Bureau recently presented accomplishments of 14 workstations, which were set up to protect the rights and interests of the city’s foreign-invested enterprises.

The 14 workstations are nonprofit organizations co-founded by the bureau and two Shenzhen-based business associations. They comprise two workstations at the municipal level, two at the district level and 10 in key industrial parks, where many foreign-funded firms are concentrated.

Service specialists working in key industrial park workstations provide specific solutions to practical difficulties foreign enterprises encounter in production and operation. These workstations are responsible for the firms in the park, as well as the neighboring ones.

“The preferential policies, intellectual property regulations and labor dispute arbitration are top problems foreign-invested companies inquire about. We also help them in terms of a factory’s rent and relocation, visa issues of expat employees entering or leaving China amid the pandemic and so on,” Liu Jin, a staffer in charge of the two municipal-level workstations, told Shenzhen Daily.

Sui Xinyuan, a service specialist with the Shenzhen Bay Eco-Technology Park workstation in Nanshan District, recalled a case in which a foreign-funded digital medical enterprise learned about the city’s supporting policies when the workstation staffers visited the firm and introduced the latest policies to them. “The company applied for a subsidy and successfully received 2 million yuan (US$308,800),” Sui said.

Meanwhile, a total of 12 law and policy publicity conferences have been held for all companies with overseas capital in Shenzhen which tackled issues about firms’ concerns such as taxation, customs clearance, foreign exchange and foreign capital management. Over 1,200 enterprise representatives attended offline and more than 30,000 people watched online, according to data provided by the bureau.

In the past year, many foreign firms enjoyed the workstations’ support regarding work, production resumption and vaccinations. “A foreign firm found it difficult to get its employees the second (vaccine) dose. The local workstation made a group appointment and rented a bus to take staffers to a designated vaccination site,” said Liu. As of now, the workstations have assisted 54 enterprises in this regard.

The latest data shows that from January to May this year, Shenzhen set up over 2,400 foreign-funded enterprises, absorbing more than US$12.4 billion in foreign investment. The city’s actual use of foreign investment exceeded US$3.1 billion with a year-on-year growth of 26 percent, Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported.