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Dalian initiates big investment to hi-tech sector

By Zhu Chengpei and Zhang Xiaomin (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-11-24 16:40

DALIAN: The port city plans to invest over 100 billion yuan to initiate 68 projects next year to quicken the development of its hi-tech industrial zone, said an official with the zone on Saturday.

"The projects will guarantee a stable development in the area through accelerating the construction of infrastructure, promoting technical and industrial innovation, and improving life of the public and the ecological environment," said Luan Qingwei, director general of the zone’s administrative committee.

The investment will be raised mainly via fiscal allotment, fundraising, and financing from banks, according to Luan.

Luan said the investment will reduce the influence of the global financial crisis which has emerged in the area.

The export volume of the manufacturing sector in the first 10 months of the year was about USD $1.1 billion with a year-on-year increase of only 2.3 percent, much lower than the common 20 to 30 percent growth in recent years, said Ge Fei, director of the hi-tech park’s foreign investment promotion bureau.

Ge introduced that some newly-approved projects were postponed to move in, while some projects with individual investment of over 100 million yuan also slackened their speed.

"Besides, the investment in the fixed assets was also lowered down," he said.

"Some of the housing projects were stagnated, because the investors turned to reassess their projects in the financial turmoil," he added.

The core industry of the hi-tech zone, the software and information service outsourcing sector, was affected by the crisis too, said Dong Li, an assistant to the director general.

"We have carried out a survey on 66 outsourcing companies in the hi-tech zone. About 20 percent of them are suffering from business reduction or even the danger of going out of business," said Dong.

"However, those big firms still go well. Their products based on self-innovation guarantee a stable market demand," she said.

According to Dong, most of the business owners are optimistic about the further development.

She regards the crisis as an opportunity to squeeze the bubble out of the sector, washing out the small-sized lower-end enterprises and optimizing the industrial structure.

"The companies can take this opportunity to focus on their core business and make efforts in upgrading technical and managing ability," Dong said.