Life and Leisure

Coastal city cashing in on its ideal location

By Lao Zhan (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-12-09 07:56

Artist's rendering of the city's pharmaceutical street, with projected investment of 3 billion yuan. Photos provided to China Daily

Puning, which is in eastern Guangdong, in the city of Jieyang's administrative area, is gearing up to become a commercial boomtown, with a strategic blueprint.

This involves several massive projects: Yinggeshan Industrial Park, an international pharmaceutical street, garment mega-mall, and commodities mega-mall.

The city announced last year that it will put more than 30 billion yuan ($4.51 billion) into 32 key projects from 2009 to 2011.

"The city has seen growth in commerce and trade and the handful of large projects are expected to create a boom," said Du Xiaoyang, secretary of the Puning Party committee.

The Puning International Garment Mega-mall, set to open in late December, involves 2 billion yuan in capital and covers a 20-hectares area. More than 300 brand names in the garment business are expected to open there.

The initial phase of the project involved an investment of 800 million yuan.

The pharmaceutical street, still in the planning stage, has a budget of 3 billion yuan. This will come in the wake of the operation of the initial phase of Kangmei Puning International Pharmaceutical Megamall, which involves an investment of 1 billion yuan.

Another huge project under construction is the Puning International Commodities Mega-mall, which covers a more than 20-hectare area and involves capital input of 1.2 billion yuan.

More than 200 renowned retailers, food and beverage suppliers, and entertainment operators have shown an interest in opening outlets. These include Carrefour, KFC, Shenzhen's Rainbow Department Store, and around 2,000 local companies.

According to Du, the commercial outlets include chain stores, caterers and franchises that have developed in tandem with traditional garment, Chinese medicine, textile, tobacco, tea, vegetables, and fruit shops.

Prosperous businesses

The retail volume of the city's consumer goods business was worth 7.04 billion yuan in the first half of this year, an increase of 30.1 percent from the same period of 2009, official statistics indicate.

A total of 113 large and medium-sized trade firms have opened in the city since early 2009.

"The boom in commerce and trade has helped real estate development," Du said, adding that Puning is the most expensive place in Jieyang and the second most expensive in eastern Guangdong.

Market analysts say that the growth in commerce and trade is largely attributed to the developed textile, garment, medicine, toy, and foodstuff industries.

The city has 558 companies with annual output surpassing 5 million yuan each, and 48 of them have an annual output exceeding 100 million yuan each, official statistics indicate.

Puning has more than 2,200 textile and garment manufacturers and another 4,000 in related businesses.

Annual sales of textiles and garments currently amount to 32 billion yuan.

It also has 15 pharmaceuticals and 633 companies in related businesses, with annual sales amounting to 11 billion yuan.

The city has four brands that are famous nationally and 22 known throughout the province.

Attractive trade environment

"The city has made an effort to improve the business environment and has invited businesspeople and overseas Chinese whose families came from Puning to the city for trade and investment," Mayor Chen Shengliang said.

Puning is the ancestral home of about 2 million overseas Chinese in more than 30 countries, as well as regions like Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

These overseas Chinese have donated 130 million yuan; and they have more than 180 projects in Puning, with a cumulative investment of more than 37 billion yuan, since early 2009.

Many chambers of commerce and associations have visited the city to look at investment prospects and have shown an intention to invest in the past two years.

The big investment projects include two eco-villages, involving 3.5 billion yuan and 1.5 billion yuan in capital.

They cover a 213-hectare and 66.67-hectare area and are expected to become city bases for headquarters and scenic attractions in this part of Guangdong.

Thanks to their help, several enterprises, including Guangzhou's Liby Group, have set up regional headquarters in Puning.

Several dozen companies paid at least 3 million yuan in taxes, each, in 2009, with the Kangmei Pharmaceutical Co Ltd paying 136.71 million yuan in taxes.

Puning lies between the cities of Shantou and Shanwei, about 400 kilometers from Guangzhou, the provincial capital, and only about 300 kilometers from Hong Kong.

The city has convenient access to other cities in the eastern part as well as to the Pearl River Delta via expressways.

New developments in Puning.