This is China! BLOG

Wujiang Wonders

A couple representatives of the Wujiang municipality dropped by the office a few days ago to let me know what was new in their economic development zones. Wujiang town hall is just south of Suzhou city, about a half hour drive. The economic development zones there are what I call “suburban” economic development zones: investors can put their factories in the area and still live in the more Westernized venues of Suzhou Industrial Park. The land prices and lease prices in suburban EDZs tend to be less expensive than their more developed neighbors, while in many instances benefiting from the inferiority complex of being next door to famous or well-developed Zones. Being number 2 (or number 3 or 4) tends to make the administrators in these suburban areas hungrier for projects, and more attentive to the special requirements of investors – especially Westerners.

Wujiang is no different. The two promotion bureau representatives that made the drive up to Suzhou to meet me during one of Suzhou’s summer torrential downpours were ever upbeat about their area’s prospects; after all, their job is to promote (no good being downbeat about your product’s prospects). One of the more recent developments in their Zone was the start of a Chemical Zone in the FOHO region of the district. The FOHO sub-zone is further to the south of Suzhou city and closer to the border with Shanghai, as well. “We turned away a lot of applications for chemical factories last year,” the petite Ms. Chen explained to me. “So, we felt if we regulate and process the pollutants well, then we can make a Chemical Zone.” A pity, that, because the Liu He area in which FOHO has settled is still a relatively unspoiled area with pretty marshes and lots of small lakes. Let’s hope the centralized waste treatment facilities they are building maintain some semblance of the local ecology. “Investors can only buy land,” Ms. Chen added, “they will not be able to lease workshops in the Chemical Zone; we need to be able to control the quality of construction.”

Wujiang is also building a “Liesure City” called Songling Town along Lake Tai (Taihu). Ms Chen explained, “Wujiang has 50 km of lakeshore along the Lake, and wants to develop real estate projects and tourism. We are also encouraging truly foreign companies to invest in real estate in the area,” she enthused. “That includes Hong Kong companies.” But doesn’t, she was reluctant to say, include Chinese companies that come as investors to China through Special Investment Vehicles hosted by offshore entities. That would be cheating.