A total of 12 companies, including the State Nuclear Power Technology Corp and Tencent (QQ), have signed with the Shanghai Caohejing Hi-Tech Park to set up facilities in the high-tech industry zone.

The new facilities are mainly research centers and regional headquarters and bring added value to the industrial park, said Liu Jiaping, general manager of the Shanghai Caohejing Hi-Tech Park Development Corp, the park's operator.

Since it was founded 20 years ago, Caohejing, in the southwest of the city, has attracted foreign investment worth US$5 billion and exported goods worth US$43.6 billion. Giants like 3M, Cisco and Philips have already set up research centers or manufacture facilities there and the park continues to expand.

In 2007, the park attracted 174 new companies. Companies invested a total of US$360 million in the park last year, 36.8 percent growth year-on-year.

"For its 20th birthday, we want to see even more healthy and sustainable development for the park. We hope to build an eastern Silicon Valley in Shanghai," Liu said yesterday.

By the end of 2007, more than 92,000 people were working in the park, about 75 percent of them high-tech talent.

Air Liquide, a French-based provider of industrial and medical gases and related services, has already set up its Chinese headquarters in Caohejing. It expects to invest three billion yuan (US$434.7 million) annually in China in the next few years.

Tyco Electronics, with manufacturing plants in Caohejing, also plans to expand in the park.

(Shanghai Daily July 9, 2008)