Established nearly 1,500 years ago, Xinxiang, a city in the north of Henan, has developed into an advanced processing base and wheat production hub.

Initially founded in 586 AD, the city witnessed a series of crucial events in Chinese history, including Zhang Liang's failed assassination attempt of Qin Shihuang, China's first emperor, and the mutiny at Chenqiao, which led to the founding of the Song Dynasty (960-1279). In the 20th century, Xinxiang briefly served as the capital of the then Pingyuan Province from August 1949 to April 1952.

Today, the city comprises two county-level cities, six counties and four districts, with a total area of 8,169 sq km and a population of 5.6 million. It ranks 84th among the top 100 cities in China, and is the third-largest in Henan.

Last year, Xinxiang also ranked 78th among the 200 major Chinese cities in terms of overall competitiveness.

Investment advantages

The city of Xinxiang boasts a number of distinctive advantages ranging from its geographic location to resources and costs. With 500 million of China's 1.3 billion population reside within a 600 km radius of Xinxiang - and a longstanding prestige as the provincial economic and energy base, Xinxiang is at the core of an ever-growing transportation network, constantly resulting in industrial transfers from eastern China to the developing central and western regions.

In terms of resources, Xinxiang is home to more than 20 types of minerals, including large reserves of coal, cement limestone, marble and clay. The Yellow River, which runs for some 170 km and covers over half of Xinxiang, and the Haihe River are vital to the city's water system. A further 400 million cu m annually will be provided when the State's colossal South-to-North Water Diversion Project, which is less than 100 km away from Xinxiang, is finished.

In terms of electricity, the city is already the production base in Central China with an installed capacity of 3,000 megawatts, expected to reach 5,000 megawatts with the completion of an ongoing hydraulic power plant project.

Furthermore, it is the main production site of grain, cotton, high-quality wheat, and the provincial animal husbandry production and processing base. Yuanyang rice, honored as the nation's best and exported throughout Asia and to Canada, originates from the city along with Fengqiu's Honeysuckle, a renowned traditional Chinese medical material.

Xinxiang ranks second in Henan in the number of enrolled students after Zhengzhou, the provincial capital, with 120,000 in its five universities and colleges. It has a 3.5 million-strong labor force.

Furthermore, the city, enriched with 46 cultural relic protection units and 60 national and provincial scenic spots, has always been a major tourist attraction.

Commercially, enterprises that invest in Xinxiang enjoy 50 to 70 percent lower costs compared with China's developed coastal cities in water, electricity, human resources and logistics. Five provincial development zones have already been built for investors from home and abroad.

Pillar industries

The six local pillar industries are electronics, bioengineering, auto and auto parts, special machinery equipments, food processing and the chemical industry.

A batch of national industry leaders can be found in the city. Golden Dragon Copper Tube Group, for example, has an annual production capacity of 300,000 tons, a global leader with a sales income of 10.3 billion yuan ($1.37 billion) in 2006. The refrigerators and freezers manufactured by Xinfei Electric Appliances Group occupy 18 percent of the domestic market, while the production capacity, output and sales of evaporators and condensers produced by Henan Kelong Company top all of its domestic competitors.

As far as other sectors are concerned, the city's Hualan Bioengineering Co has a one-seventh share of China's in blood products market. And in the auto and auto parts sector, Henan Xinfei Special Purpose Vehicle Co and some other local firms' total sales volume account for a quarter of the provincial market.

Xinxiang's crane industry dominates the domestic market of medium and small tonnage crane equipments and fittings with several national-brand companies such as Xinji Group, Weihua Crane and Tianfeng Steel Board Company.

Policy incentives

Designated by the central government as one of the six key sites for the construction of a national credit system, Xinxiang's service-oriented investment environment has been constantly improving. It gained the honor of "China's best city in foreign direct investment" this May and was named "the city with the best investment environment in Central China" in August.

Projects funded by Fortune 500 enterprises, China's top 500 firms, projects with over $5 million in registered capital and invested by foreign enterprises or above 50 million yuan ($6.66 million) in fixed assets if invested by domestic personnel, to name but a few, receive favorable treatment from the municipal government.

For industrial enterprises funded by foreign investors in the city area, the municipal government will refund enterprise income tax levied as local fiscal revenue in the first year of investment.

In addition, the newly established industrial productive enterprises will be exempt from all kinds of administration and enterprise charges according to a proper proportion to support their development.

(China Daily 10/19/2007 page26)