City aims to go out

China's economic powerhouse Shanghai has announced a "go-out" strategy that will boost its investment overseas to US$500 million in the next five years.

The so-called "go-out" strategy is in contrast with its strategy to attract foreign investment, also known as the "invite-in" strategy.

Under the "go-out" strategy, Shanghai will foster a group of influential multinationals and establish a group of overseas production bases to boost transfer of matured industries overseas and the export of raw materials, equipment and spare parts, Shanghai Vice-mayor Jiang Yiren said recently.

GUANGZHOU

Mainland talent sought

Employers from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) opened a two-day fair here last Thursday to seek eligible professionals from mainland areas.

Among the employers are overseas-invested companies, transnational corporations and Hong Kong-based enterprises that are seeking professionals in the information technology and financial service sectors.

It is estimated that Hong Kong will need some 100,000 IT professionals and 220,000 financial service professionals by 2005.

HUIZHOU, Guangdong

IT giants swarm in

Huizhou in South China's Guangdong Province has become one of China's important production centres for electronics and information technology (IT) products with domestic and overseas investors flocking to the city.

Sony, Samsung, LG, General Electric, Philips and China's leading computer maker Legend are some of the major investors in the city.

With its electronics output totalling 42.9 billion yuan (US$5.2 billion), ranking second in Guangdong and fifth in China, Huizhou produces about 30 per cent of the world's laser diodes, the key component of VCD and DVD players.

Huizhou is also the world's largest production centre for telephones and batteries and Asia's biggest producer of computer circuit boards.

HONG KONG

Display giants tie up

LG Philips Displays, created through the merger of the display business of Royal Philips Electronics from the Netherlands and LG Electronics from South Korea, was set up officially last Thursday in Hong Kong.

"We have created the world's largest supplier of television and monitor tubes," Philippe Combes, chairman and chief executive officer of the new company, said at the launching ceremony. Each of the two shareholders owns 50 per cent of the new company.

As to the choice of Hong Kong as its operational headquarters, Combes said Hong Kong's facilities, infrastructure and labour market would provide an excellent entrepreneurial climate for the new company.

DALIAN

New business pledged

Northeast China's Liaoning Province promised unprecedented investment opportunities in the next five years, according to the province's Deputy Governor Liu Ketian.

Liu said that the Chinese Government had listed the reconstruction of Liaoning, an old industrial base, as one of the key projects in its 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05) period and pledged financial and policy support.

According to Liu, fixed assets investment in the next five years is estimated at 770 billion yuan (US$93 billion), in addition to another 200 billion (US$24 billion) for technical innovation of old enterprises.

The Liaoning provincial government is encouraging four traditional sectors to seek overseas investment, which include petro-chemistry, metallurgy, mechanics and electronics.

NINGBO

City lures top firms

Some 20 of the world's 500 largest companies, such as Exxon and DuPont Dow have settled in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang Province, with total investments of more than US$5 billion.

These multinational companies have launched 98 large projects, each with an investment exceeding US$10 million.

They are attracted to the city mainly because of its international port, its favourable location on the Yangtze River Delta, and its preferential policies and good