Beihai aims high in electronic information sector

Beihai, a city in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, is to make the electronic information industry a pillar of the local economy, and aims for an industrial output of over 100 billion yuan ($15.6 billion) by 2015.

The city secured nine electronics projects with a total investment of 780 million yuan at the seventh Pan-Beibu Gulf Economic Cooperation Conference, Lan Tianli, vice-governor of Guangxi said at the closing ceremony of the event in Nanning of Guangxi on Friday.

Beihai's electronics industry surged 60.4 percent year-on-year to 30.2 billion yuan in 2011, and it is expected to churn out 50 billion yuan in 2012, Zhou Jiabin, the city's mayor said at a summit of the conference on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Beihai's electronics manufacturing output came to 25.8 billion yuan in 2011, accounting for two thirds of Guangxi's overall output in this sector, Zhou said.

Beihai is to bolster the industry in five areas: computer and spare parts, optoelectronic devices, power electronics, electronic parts and components, and small home appliances, according to Zhou.

To that end, it is to build the Beihai Electronics Park, with a planned area of 21.67 sq km, and will offer a slew of favorable policies including tax cuts, Zhou said.

Beihai, located in the Beibu Gulf rim, is adjacent to South East Asian countries, where their low labor costs have begun to lure investors out of China.

As labor costs are rising in some Chinese cities, Korean companies are turning to South East Asia for lower costs, Jason J.H. Kim, partner of Lineman Asia Investment, said at the conference Thursday.

"Guangxi is geographically remote for Koreans, but its reach to the South East Asia will turn it, or cities like Beihai, into a favorite for Korean investors," said Kim, who visited Guangxi for the first time, and promised to promote it to Korean investors.

"An investor will have its products produced here to serve both the Chinese and the ASEAN market," he said.

He suggested Beihai foster more talents in the industry, and pointed out that quite a few Korean online game developers would flock to invest in China if there were favorable policies.

The sales revenue of China's electronics and information industries rose more than 20 percent to 9.3 trillion yuan in 2011, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The sector employed 11.52 million people in 2011, about 1.5 percent of China's working-age population, said Lu Shan, vice-president of China Center for Information Industry Development.

An electronics park in Beihai will benefit local employment, Lu said at the PBG Economic Cooperation Forum which kicked off on Thursday.