By He Shan
China.org.cn staff reporter
Dongguan, a traditional economic engine of China's phenomenal growth over the last three decades, has reemerged as a high-technology outpost in the global economy -- thanks to the Songshan Lake Pioneer Park which has attracted thousands of researchers and engineers.
Rising from China's southern coast, Songshan Lake Pioneer Park is one of the most ambitious planned development projects in Dongguan, whose image to the outside had been "the world's factory".
Completed in 2001, the vibrant 17,784-acre site is fast becoming an innovation center and attracting top world companies and a string of technology start-up firms.
The establishment of a dozen of the world's top 500 companies in the park is among the most visible manifestations of a much broader trend that is putting China firmly on the map as an international center of innovation.
Several company executives joined local officials on May 6 to announce that they would take new spaces in the park. The companies are Shenzhen Sunshine-Laser Ltd., Advanced Aerodynamics Inc, and Minmetals Dornier Recreational Vehicle Corporation, etc.
The most attractive aspect of the park is a beautiful landscape that is hard to come by these days. It is a lakefront community, with trees in blossom lining the sides of broad avenues, and arrays of handsomely-designed houses interspersed with patches of lush grass.
"I can't think of a place that is more suitable for doing research," said Zheng Muming, president of Southern Medical University, who plans to locate a research institute here.
The park is partly a result of a dawning awareness that China should break its addiction to energy-exhaustive and sweatshop-like manufacturing in a shift to a cleaner and smarter growth model.
To lure outside investment, the park provides incentives like subsidized loans, tax exemptions and discounts on land. Over the past six years, park operators have traveled around promoting their zones to foreign and domestic investors.
The park's competitive edge promises to deliver, due to a growing pool of university-educated engineers and a huge potential home market.
Even in these risk-averse times, some companies are pressing on with enormous development projects, many driven by the Chinese market which is too big to ignore.
"There is certainly a market opportunity here. This region must be a growth story," said Nicolas Kreimer, executive director of Advanced Aerodynamics Inc, an aircraft maker who is poised to move part of its R&D sector to the park to draw on engineering talent from the city's universities.
"On the basis that we cannot afford to miss the Chinese market, we have applied for four patents in China," he added.
Nicolas Kreimer is not alone in his Chinese silicon adventure here. Many other companies are also up and running. Minmetals and Dornier Recreational Vehicle Ltd. will spend 1 billion yuan (US$149 million) to set up a plant together with a research and development center here. The project will translate into 60,000 jobs, a real boon for the local labor force.
Most of the company's component requirements -- from home appliances such as TV sets and air conditioner, to home decorations -- will be available somewhere in a city that is already packed with such suppliers.
"From a cost point of view, it's important that we localize," said Wen Jialong, the company's general manager. "The market is here, and now there is a complete supply base here. We expect the number of companies to grow."
(China.org.cn May 12, 2009)
