Tianjin TEDA Ranked Number 1
January 31st, 2008 | by This is China! |Rich Brubaker over at All Roads Lead to China posted an article in which the Chinese government ranked Tianjina’s TEDA (Tianjin Economic Development Area) number one for the tenth year running of all state-approved Economic Development Zones (EDZs) in China. There are 52 nationally-approved zones, with Tibet Lhasa coming online soon.
“The general index of the investment environment of a state-level development zone is comprised of eight indicators, namely, comprehensive economic strength, infrastructure, operation cost, human resources and supply, community and environment, climate for technological innovation, management system, and development and efficiency.”
The ranking system the survey body uses seems mature enough, though given to a great deal of flexibility of interpretation (our own EDZ ranking methodology involves more than 30 measures). As well, it is difficult to know what political expedients the powers that be have in mind when they actually rate the EDZs. It is a well-known fact that only within the last two years has Tianjin as a city actually begun receiving the kind of investment attention Central Government had been lavishing on Beijing and Shanghai. Now, they want to develop the Bohai Rim, which has been the anchor of China’s rustbelt. Of course,then, they would want to throw as many spotlights as possible on the area as they plow billions of dollars into an area that has been in the doldrums since central planning took a pie in the face twenty-five years ago.
Still, the system seems accurate enough to gauge what the powers that be probably already knew but hadn’t quantified. There’s still work to be done on the investment environments Out West!
According to the MOC’s result of the comprehensive appraisal of the investment environment of the state-level economic-technological development zones for the year 2006, the average general index of the state-level development zones in the east of China is 1.1 times of those in the central part and 1.41 times of those in the western portion. However, the gap is increasingly smaller.
Favorites of mine that did make the cut were Suzhou Industrial Park, Xiamen Haicang, and Ningbo Daxie. But then again, there’s no place like home.
Bill Dodson
SUZHOU, China
