An investment hotspot in Nantong

A new science and technology center in Nantong - an industrial city on the Yangtze River Delta in Jiangsu province, 90 kilometers from Shanghai - is focusing on innovative businesses as a way to bring investment and create more jobs.

Shen Fenglei, CEO of the Nantong Science and Technology Park, which sits in the city's center, explained that they will focus on new and high technologies and innovation to develop research projects, improve the city's professional services, and attract entrepreneurs.

The park already has a group of research institutes and innovative businesses, Shen said, with electronics and information science companies accounting for 80 percent.

By the end of September the park had 148 businesses and six research institutes employing more than 1,500 people. Their combined registered capital amounted to 350 million yuan ($55 million).

It has only been a year since the park opened, but already it has produced some several innovative technology, one example of which is China's first patented USB 3.0 connector chip.

Because of the vision behind the park and its advanced services, it has been praised by Jiangsu officials and has won awards as a "national innovative business service center" and provincial "model software and information science park for service".

Shen said that the park has a planned area of 28.2 hectares and has spent 1 billion yuan on infrastructure so it can hold more than 300 businesses.

One of the earliest projects to go operational was a business development area that was started by returning overseas scholars.

Shen said that the next step is to bring in some well-known research and development institutes and build some headquarters for international brands.

Because Nantong is one of China's major electronics bases, its electronic information industry has grown more than 20 percent annually, over a five-year period, with revenues of 96.7 billion yuan in 2010.

The new energy business in Nantong has also shown some progress and, by the end of 2010, the city's wind power industry had an installed capacity of 642,000 kilowatts. That figure is expected to surpass 2 million kilowatts by 2015.

Nantong's new materials, biotechnology and other industries have all seen fairly rapid growth.

By September 2011, the park's businesses held 47 patents and were applying for 18 new ones.

(China Daily 10/18/2011 page22)