Nansha standing out as key investment destination in Bay Area

Guangzhou's Nansha district in South China's Guangdong province is to host an investment promotion, a thematic session of the 2022 Guangzhou Annual Investment Conference, on the afternoon of Aug 30.

The event will be the latest move of the district to welcome and encourage potential investors to share new business opportunities arising from the implementation of the "Overall Plan for Promoting Comprehensive Cooperation among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao by Further Deepening Opening-up in Nansha District of Guangzhou", which was released by the State Council, China's Cabinet, on June 14.

During the promotion, local officials will explain "Why (invest in) Nansha" while some senior executives of enterprises that have invested in Nansha will share "How (they feel) in Nansha" with the guests present. Also, a contract signing ceremony for new investment projects will be held and new industrial policies released.

A growing number of foreign chambers of commerce in Guangzhou and Fortune Global 500 enterprises have developed an interest in Nansha.

According to a senior executive with the district's investment promotion agency, many attendees spoke highly of the investment climate in Nansha including its business environment and favorable policies during a recent tour, adding: "They are even more confident of doing business in Nansha."

A large number of investors have flocked to Nansha in the past couple of months and several enterprises including Youngy Investment Management Group, China Unicom and China National Software have signed agreements to launch a slew of innovative industrial projects in Nansha.

"Nansha is a State-level new area, pilot free trade zone and demonstration zone for comprehensive cooperation among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. Its strategic importance in the nation's development is further highlighted in the mid-June plan," said Li Lu, deputy director of the agency. "We sincerely hope to join hands with investors at home and abroad to share the opportunities and will support them with our superb resources, favorable policies and best services."

Li said that the district has launched a new preferential policy system that integrates incentives for innovation, industrial development, financing and talent, the first of its kind among State-level new districts in China.

The system keeps incorporating special policies targeting the district's key and strategic sectors, she said.

For example, the local government will provide an advanced manufacturing project with a fixed-assets investment of more than 500 million yuan ($72.3 million) with a subsidy, equivalent to 2 percent of its actual investment. The maximum subsidy is 200 million yuan.

For foreign-funded projects, rewards of up to 200 million yuan will be given to any new investment depending on its actual capital input; multinational enterprises basing their regional headquarters in Nansha might receive up to 100 million yuan in rewards.

There is also a package of initiatives to assist foreign-funded enterprises with land issues, government services, financing and human resources, among many others.

The new policies keep the district ahead of the game, Li added.

The district has so far spent more than 15 billion yuan supporting enterprises and talents. To date, Nansha is home to more than 3,000 foreign-funded enterprises. It has witnessed a surge of enterprises in the fields of manufacturing, scientific and technological innovation, biomedicine and financial services. This realized paid-in foreign capital worth $1.72 billion in the first half of this year.

As of June, 232 Fortune Global 500 companies including Toyota, Denso and Tupperware had invested in Nansha. They launched nine investment projects in the first half of this year, statistics from the district's commerce bureau indicated.

In advanced manufacturing, the output value of the automobile manufacturing industry in Nansha exceeded 150 billion yuan in 2021. A new energy automobile industrial cluster capable of yielding an annual industrial output value of 100 billion yuan, which is composed of such carmakers as GAC Toyota, Hycan and WM Motor, is speeding up its development. Meanwhile, the leading technologies of Dongfang (Guangzhou) Heavy Machinery and Guangzhou Herrenknecht Tunnelling Machinery are gaining popularity in overseas markets; and its Longxue island has been among the three major shipbuilding bases in China.

In emerging industries, Nansha is home to a total of 620 artificial intelligence and biotechnology enterprises including Cloudwalk and Walvax Biotechnology. Also, an aerospace industrial park is taking shape with the headquarters of CAS Space and the aerospace branch of Geely in place.

In the modern financial industry, the district is home to more than 6,600 financial enterprises and the number of financing and leasing enterprises accounts for 20 percent of the country's total, which has made the district the aircraft and ship-leasing center in South China.

In addition, Nansha ranks highly among State-level pilot free trade zones in such innovation parameters as trade facilitation and investment liberalization and it occupies a leading position among State-level new areas in business environment.

It is also the first special zone in China for international talent, home to around 17,000 domestic and overseas high-caliber professionals.

European Louis Dreyfus Company, the world's leading agricultural product processing and trade enterprise, is building a food industry park in Nansha. Construction started in March.

Wang Dazhong, a director of LDC's North Asia branch, said: "LDC is very excited about the newly released plan, which has not only proved that we made a right investment decision, but boosted our confidence. We hope that we can leverage our knowledge and experience in food trade, share dividends and finally take root in China."

Wang said that LDC is interested in Nansha's ambition to be a benchmark for high-quality urban development in the future, as it aligns with the company's philosophy. Talents move to attractive cities. Therefore, enterprises like his can recruit more of them. Moreover, a city with high-quality development will surely boast diversified and refined consumption demands, which means lucrative markets for enterprises.

"We look forward to taking root in Nansha with the help of preferential policies. Focusing on the food industry park, we will take advantage of the resources within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area," Wang said.

"Next, we will set up a storage and distribution center for imported grain. This will help balance grain production and sales, and ensure a secure supply of important agricultural products into the Bay Area and surrounding areas, and an efficient supply of high-quality protein products in South China. We want to ride the wave of Nansha's growth."