NingboLife and NingboExpat since 2004 - "New engine"” driving economic development

"New engine"” driving economic development

Details: Category: Ningbo Business; Published: Monday, 18 February 2013 09:53

Since the beginning of 2013, the Zhejiang (Ningbo) Production Base of Shanghai Volkswagen has witnessed race of the final stage for the trial production in February. It has only been one year and a month since the establishment of the base at the beginning of 2012. It is this incredible speed of development that has attracted the attention and praise from the Volkswagen headquarters in Germany.

This is only one of the many stories that happened in Ningbo in 2012. In spite of the complicated and serious economic situation, Ningbo has gone through a fruitful year with many great projects.

Statistics show that in 2012, there were 255 major construction projects in Ningbo, with a total investment of 591.4 billion yuan, and an intentional yearly investment of 90 billion yuan and an actual yearly investment of 92.87 billion yuan. A batch of major projects in such fields as high-end industries, infrastructure construction and people's livelihood got approved by the nation or Zhejiang Province. The construction of a batch of major industrial projects including the Ningbo Base of CSR was started. A large number of infrastructure and livelihood projects such as Xiangshan Port Bridge were put into operation or sped up.

The introduction and operation of such good and big projects are a kind of important means of transforming the developing pattern and adjusting economic structure. Confronted with the decline of the economic growth rate, Ningbo adhered to the orientation of developing in accordance with the planning of the strategic emerging industries. By seizing the opportunity of the marine economic development and giving priority to the improvement of people’s livelihood, Ningbo has made great efforts to select suitable good and big projects.

In 2012, the low-investment situation of the previous years was greatly changed with the private investment growing rapidly. The investment in the projects that are consistent with the transformation and upgrading requirements increased the most. For example, the investments in medicine manufacturing and automobile manufacturing increased by 119.6% and 94.9% respectively.

Such multinational companies as the Peugeot of France, Cardinal Health of US and Total of France have settled down in Ningbo. So far, there have been about 100 enterprises in Ningbo with the investment by about 40 World's Top 500 companies. Ningbo has also attracted attention of such enterprises as central state-owned enterprises, China's Top 500 enterprises and Top 100 Private Enterprises. Among all the introduced major projects by Zhejiang original businesses, nearly 20 investment projects or headquarters economy projects were those investment by China's Top 500 enterprises.

Project introduction is merely a starting point. After that, from the city-level to the specific department, from project approval to element equipment, the city has made great efforts to create a "green passage" for the settlement, opening, construction and operation of the projects.

To guarantee the element equipment and the settlement of the projects, the related departments make efforts to improve the overall plan of the land. In terms of administrative approval, new policies have been adopted to simplify and optimize the linkage and procedure of the construction, such as advanced intervention, door-to-door service and all-the-way tracking. The newly-opened "8718 platform" has integrated all the enterprise-involved policies to help the SMEs to solve all kinds of problems in their process of transformation and upgrading.