Shaanxi Profile
Shaanxi Province is located at China’scentral position that links its East to West and North to South and is a key transfer station for inland transportation to Central Asia and Europe. Shaanxicovers an area of 205,800 square kilometers and has a population of 37.50million. As a provincial capital and starting point of the Silk Road, Xi’an nowis a key city in China’s section of Eurasia Land Bridge, has most freeways andnational main trunk lines of China’s mega cities, and is one of the six railwayterminals and also one of the four aviation hubs under national planning.
Stable energy supply
Shaanxi abounds in mineral resources.Potential value of mineral reserve is estimated to be RMB42 trillion yuan,ranking first in China. Of various mineral resources in Shaanxi, coal reserveproven is 168,5 billion tons, ranking third nationwide; petroleum reserve is1.4 billion tons and natural gas reserve 1.02 trillion cubic meters. By virtueof these resources, we’ve made significant progress in construction of theinternationally advanced and nationally first-rate Shanbei Energy ChemicalIndustrial Base that has attracted investments from many big businesses andcorporate groups both at home and abroad, including “transmitting electricityfrom the western to the eastern regions” project as well as Shenhua Dow coalchemical industry, Shenhua Sasol coal liquefaction, Yankuang Group coalliquefaction and coal chemical industry and Wubao coal coking chemical projectswith total investment of RMB500 billion yuan.
Beautiful environment for humansettlements
In Shaanxi Province, there are magnificentmountains and rivers, profound historic and cultural deposits along withnumerous cultural relics and historic sites left over in 13 dynasties whenXi’an was an ancient capital; there are also naturally endowed landscapes suchas Hukou Waterfall, Taibai Mountain Snow and Huashan Mountain as well as manyother well-known mountains, rivers, scenery spots, nature reserves, ecologicalreserves, geological parks and scenic resorts. Over years’ transformation ofcultivated land into forestry and comprehensive control of water pollution andair pollution, the ecological and human habitable environments in Shaanxi havebeen improved evidently, percentage of forest coverage up to 37% and tree-grasscoverage up to 45%, which makes “Yellow Shaanxi” as impressed by many nationalsa past concept in history. Construction of water sources and comprehensivemanagement of rivers have provided reliable water supply for major citiesincluding Xi’an and key investment areas. Electric power supply that hasprofited much from abundant energy resources can meet all needs of economicdevelopment.
Convenient communications and transportation
Shaanxi features moderate location andconvenient transportation. Xi’an is the only city in China where 9 nationalhighways and 5 railroad lines have converged and is also one of the 6 railwayterminals and air hubs. It has expressways leading to each central city in theprovince; by the end of 2010, length of highways on operation exceeds 3000km,ranking first in West China and forming a “traffic circle within one day” thatconnects to provincial capitals in its vicinity. After operation of passengerrailway line in this year, it takes 2 hours from Xi’an to Zhengzhou, 3 hours toWuhan, 4 hours to Beijing and 5 hours to Shanghai. Xi’an Xianyang InternationalAirport is one the of six hub airports in China and makes possible to arrive inany major city in China within 3 hours by air.
Sufficient human resources
Shaanxi is a nationally important base forhigher education in possession of superiority in scientific and educationalresources as well as comparative advantages in human resources and costs.General strength of science and technology in colleges and universities ranksthird in China as there are now 1061 scientific research institutions, 1.1million scientific and technical personnel, 76 regular institutions of higherlearning and nearly 1 million students in enrollment; the number of national“985 project” and “211 project” universities takes the second and the fourthplace respectively in China. Shaanxi abounds in human resources; among 10,000of its population, the quantity of professional technicians ranks seventh inChina; among 10,000 of workers, the quantity of professional technicians rankssecond. At the same time, labor cost in Shaanxi is lower than that in Eastarea.
Supporting industries taking initial shape
Shaanxi has favorable industrial base andcomplete category of industrial system; particularly in recent years, rapiddevelopment of special industries such as equipment manufacture, energychemical industry and hi-tech industry contributes to momentum in competitiveindustries including complete equipment of power transmission and distribution,autos and components and machine tools with big aircraft manufacture as theleading industry, which has promoted overall dimension and technical level ofequipment manufacture in Shaanxi. With support of Shanbei energy chemicalindustry base, the energy chemical industry has witnessed advancement in CTL,coal to methanol and MTO that focuses on deep processing and chemicalengineering of coal, petroleum and gas after investigation of these resourcesis assured, which provides potent support for Shaanxi’s development and alsofor national strategy of energy resources. Led by Xi’an Software Park, thesoftware industry clusters composed of communication cluster dominated byHaitian Antenna and Datang Telecom, integrated circuit industrial chaindominated by Micron and Infineon, electron device industrial cluster dominatedby Rainbow Group and equipment manufacturing cluster dominated by Xidian Groupand Xi’an Heavy Machinery Research Institute, have generated a packing effectthat unfolds a new trend in hi-tech industrialization of Shaanxi. Currently,the Development Planning for Guanzhong-Tianshui Economic Zone has comes intoeffect and new planning and policy on development of western regions will beunveiled to implement major projects and drive overall development of Shaanxi.Inevitably, successful implementation of 12 industries restructuring andrevitalization plan including equipment manufacture will lay a solid industrialfoundation for economic development of Shaanxi.
Various development zones becoming hotspots
Xi’an Hi-tech Development Zone is one ofthe five development zones supported by the State; Yangling Demonstration Zoneis the only national agricultural hi-tech industrial demonstration zone; Xi’anYanliang Aviation Hi-tech Industrial Base is the only state-level aviationindustrial base. In 2005, Premier Wen Jiabao said that five hi-tech developmentzones including Xi’an zone would be built as world-class Science and TechnologyPark. At present, Shaanxi is putting up all strengths to achieve this purpose.A multilevel opening-up pattern has come into being in Shaanxi, which is led by7 state-level development zones such as hi-tech development zones in Xi’an andBaoji, Xi’an Economic and Technological Development Zone and YanglingAgricultural Hi-tech Demonstration Zone, and based on Central Shaanxi Hi-techDevelopment Belt to drive development in North and South Shaanxi.
Optimized investment environment
With improvementbeing made in infrastructural environment, Shaanxi perseveres with improvementof investment and service environment and creation of market economy system andservice environment compatible with international practices. Investmentpromotion agencies are founded in each city and district of Shaanxi Province topractice “all services provided in one hall”. Approval process of registration,labor employment, outbound business travel, tax reimbursement and request forforeign exchange demanded by investment enterprises both at home and abroadshall be completed with limited time. Rapid development is made in logisticsand port construction by executing “big custom clearance” to achieve “customclearance at locality, inspection and release at port” for all inbound andoutbound commodities. For domestic and foreign enterprises to make investmentin Shaanxi, local preferential policies of Shaanxi and national development ofwest regions shall be practiced right down the line.