With rich resources and great market potential, western China
has attracted the attention of an increasing number of
multinational corporations.
The Foreign Investment Office of Gansu Provincial Commerce
Bureau said Saturday that beginning in March this year renowned
multinational corporations such as BHO-Billiton, the global leading
mining firm based in Australia, Carrefour, world's second largest
retailer, and Veolia, the global leading water affairs firm, have
traveled to Lanzhou, capital of Gansu
Province, in search of business opportunities.
It is reported that Wal-Mart, the world's leading retailer, also
has the intention to open outlet in Lanzhou.
Last year, Coca-Cola invested US$12 million in a tinned
production line in Lanzhou, targeting 57 million consumers in Gansu
and Qinghai
provinces and the autonomous regions of Ningxia,
Xinjiang
and Tibet,
all in western China. Denmark-based Carlsberg Brewery Limited,
together with a foundation for industrialization in developing
countries, invested US$30 million to set up the Yellow
River-Carlsbery beer company in Lanzhou.
Shao Hongda, director of Lanzhou City Foreign Investment Bureau,
said that Lanzhou is only one of the places multinational
corporations have investigated for business opportunities in
western China. Other west China cities such as Xi'an, Chengdu and
Chongqing
all have become investment destinations of multinational
corporations.
Frequent visits by multinational corporations have convinced
local analysts that world's leading firms are expected to "speed
up" their investment in western China.
Wang Xu, deputy head of Gansu Provincial Commerce Bureau, said
that the trend has much to do with changes in China's investment
atmosphere in recent years.
She said, power crisis, tensed land use and rising production
cost, resulted from growing prices of petroleum, iron and steel,
coal and other raw materials, and higher market saturation in the
eastern region have driven many businesses to move west.
China's strategy to develop its vast western region also has
attracted many world's leading businesses to seek business chances
in western China, She said.
Li Guozhang, a professor with the Western China Development
Research Institute under Lanzhou
University, said that multinational corporations are paying
more attention to long-term profits.
"Although western regions are temporarily weak in infrastructure
facilities, local rich resources and great market potential are
attractive to foreign investors," Li said.
Improving infrastructure facilities and comparative industrial
strength are the major factors that attract multinational
corporations, said Wei Qizhu, an official with the investment
office of Gansu Provincial Commerce Bureau. In Gansu, one of
China's most economically underdeveloped provinces, the total
length of expressways already open to traffic or being built have
topped 1,000 kilometers, Wei said.
He said, western China boasts advantages in biomedicine,
petroleum and natural gas exploration, oil-refining and chemical
industries.
Professor Li Guozhang said, western regions need to further
improve the local investment environment to attract more
multinational corporations.
(Xinhua News Agency April 23, 2005)