“350 foreign-funded enterprises were newly registered in Nansha in the first half of 2018, increased 1.5 times year on year,” unveiled by Pan Yuzhang, Deputy Director of the Management Committee of Nansha Free Trade Zone (FTZ), during a press conference on July 17.
According to Pan, the district’s contracted foreign investment and actual utilized foreign capital are also growing rapidly, respectively reaching 6.39 billion USD (up 3.5 times YoY) and 790 million USD (up 1.2 times YoY).
These rising numbers indicate Nansha’s business environment is improving and becoming ever more attractive to the overseas enterprises. Since the FTZ launched in 2015, Nansha’s GDP increased from 102.6 billion yuan to 139.2 billion yuan, with a 12.6 percent annual growth rate.
Meanwhile, Nansha has become more connected by a metro line, expressways and shipping routes. And the government has put forward policies and measures to facilitate its commercial services, customs service and talent recruitment etc.
During the press conference, Pan Yuzhang said Nansha has recently formulated a series of new development measures in line with the central government’s instruction on China’s FTZ.
For example, the district will facilitate its business environment and examine it with international standard, meaning to push forward more advantageous policies which cover international trade, commercial services, financial admittance, shipping logistics, international law services and cooperation with Hong Kong and Macao.
The photo shows a facial recognition machine created by a Nansha-based AI company, CLOUDWALK. This machine has been applied to both the Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 of the Baiyun International Airport. [PhotoJasmine Yin]
“We will provide more convenient administrative services and further ease Nansha’s market access. By the end of this years, half of the administrative applications and public services can be done online,” said Pan.
In addition, new measures were also released to develop Nansha’s innovative industries, transport network, living environment and new business modes.
“Innovative industries will be the most important building block of our future development. We are aiming for enterprises in the fields of information technology, AI, bio-technology, marine technology and new martial, and building a test area for smart vehicle and smart transportation. More national labs will be located here in the future,” he said.
In terms of its traffic network, Nansha is building two more metro lines, Line 18 and Line 22 (Line 18 will link Nansha with Zhongshan) as well as the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong high-speed rail and more expressways. The district will be more connected with other cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area in the future.
Reported by Jasmine Yin
Edited by Wing Zhang
