Attractive event in Chengdu
The Gartner China Outsourcing Summit 2008, which began the day before yesterday in the Shangri-la Hotel in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province come to an end today.
Jointly held by the Ministry of Commerce and Gartner Inc, a leading provider of research and analysis on the global information technology industry, it is the first high-level international service outsourcing conference sponsored by the ministries of commerce, education, science and technology, and the Sichuan provincial government.
This summit attracts lots of participants from a wide range of industries such as finance, logistics, communications, manufacturing, retail sales, chemicals, food and IT.
Several Fortune 500 firms also attend the summit, including General Electric, Zurich Insurance, British Airways, Carrefour, Barclays Bank, Siemens, Sony Electronics and NTT Japan. Outsourcing association leaders from 10 nations including Brazil, Russia, India and China will also attend.
Participants include fifty leading outsourcing vendors from 14 Chinese cities, such as Beijing, Dalian, Hangzhou and Chengdu. Some of the companies are among China’s top 20 firms in annual outsourcing revenues.
According to the organizers, Chengdu was chosen to be the host city because of its agreeable environment and advantages in outsourcing. Chengdu is a city of subtropical climate with four distinct seasons. It is also far away from the regions influenced by typhoons or freezing weather.
Compare with 2006, the GDP of Chengdu rose by 15.3%, which surpassed 332 billion yuan in 2007, ranking second in central and western China. Last year, the GDP per capita of the city reached $3,634.
Friendly environment
Chengdu city owns a dependable environment and a good record in intellectual property rights (IPR) protection, which are other two reasons it can attract so many participants.
No IPR complaints from foreign-invested companies were registered in Chengdu in 2006 though a specialized IPR court has been established in the city since 1997. It obtained the official honour of China’s first “Demonstration City for National Intellectual Property Rights” last November. Foreign direct investment in this city surpassed $3.4 billion in 2007. Compare with previous year, the investment in 2007 got an increase of 67.
Based on the report, the city’s actual utilization of foreign capital ranked first in central and western China last year. To date, 124 of the world’s top 500 firms have a business presence there.
According to the government, as an immigrant city, Chengdu is full of a spirit of harmony, tolerance, honesty and innovation. Companies coming from other cities have got great success in the city.
Among the operations worldwide of ItoYokado Department Store in 2007, sales of Chengdu city’s increased at the highest rate, with turnover at the store ranking third of all its stores globally.
Seven countries including the United States, Germany and France have opened consulates in Chengdu. The American Chamber of Commerce and chambers for British and EU members, as well as the Canada China Business Council, have established offices in Chengdu.
There are 11 five-star hotels including the Shangri-La, more than 10 bilingual primary and middle schools and four bilingual kindergartens in Sichuan capital.
Shuangliu International Airport, which has 72 domestic air routes, is a 15-minute drive from the city’s civic centre and one of six key regional airports in China. There are over 15 daily flights to Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen. The airport also offers direct air flights to Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Seoul, Macao and Manila.
One of the highest highway densities in China with 10 expressways crossing or linking it is also in Chengdu city. Its first subway is expected to open in 2010.
Information centre
As one of the centres of information technology in the nation, Chengdu has world-class industrial parks. Several districts in Chengdu are all outsourcing demonstration zones well equipped with a double-power supply grid and state-of-the-art telecommunication and infrastructure facilities.
There are 1.55 million technical personnel in various professions in Chengdu, which make the city become the fourth among the large and medium-sized cities in China. More than half higher learning institutions in Sichuan are in Chengdu.
Salaries for outsourcing personnel in Chengdu are also advantageous. Owing to the comfortable environment and high quality of life, labour in the outsourcing industry is stable, with a turnover rate lower than 5 percent.
The Chengdu municipal government has assigned software and service outsourcing to develop strategic industries. It has an outsourcing leadership group headed by the mayor, who is also in charge of direct meetings in the sector.
The government has specific goal for Chengdu to develop its service outsourcing: By 2010, the service outsourcing exports of the city will get $500 million; a group of outsourcing enterprises whose staff each reaches 3,000 people and annual business revenues exceed 1 billion yuan will be cultivated and formed. Personnel working in service outsourcing industry will be more than 200,000, according to the plan.
Hi-tech zones
A 9-sq-km software industry centre is under plan in the hi-tech zone. Over there, Tianfu Software Park, Software Incubation Park and ZTE Communication Park already have more than 200 software enterprises from home and abroad, with IBM, SAP, NEC, Nokia and Alcatel included, which are all the world-famous software and service companies.
The total planned area of Tianfu Software Park is 100 hectares, 33 hectares of which are covered by Chengdu new and High Technology Incubation Park.
Located in Chengdu’s Wuhou ditrict, the six-km-long Science and Technology Street is the heart of Chengdu. It is the home to more than 10 large-scale computer specialty markets and logistics management operations. Many subsidiaries and offices of the world-renowned IT companies along the street comprise the second-largest computer market in China.
Software base
Chengdu is also known for its Qingcheng Mountain Software Manufacturing Base, where includes education, industry, research and supporting services. It is named for the nearby mountain listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site.
In 2006, it was certificated as China Service Outsourcing Base (model area). The first phase of the base covers 4 sq km, while a second phase was going to stretch across total area of 20 sq km.
1n 2007, the government spent 200 million yuan to train and place technicians, with 50 million yuan solely on service and outsourcing. By last December, the number of employees in this city surpassed 100,000; and this industry generated $114 million in international business.
Such top 100 global outsourcing enterprises as IBM, Wiproand Beyondsoft have also settle in Chengdu. Moreover, with a total investment of 10 billion yuan, 13 domestic financial and insurance institutions had established background service centers in Chengdu by the end of 2007.
The city plans to build a 200-hectare financial centre. It will include a “tripartite” centre of banks, insurance and securities. More than 40 integrated circuit design companies help the city further form a computer-related industrial chain.
However, Chengdu has further goals in its development. With more than 60 digital entertainment companies making games for networks, cellphones, video play, as well as operating and testing them, Chengdu is expected to become the fourth research and development centre for 3G cellphone technology and equipment along with Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. With one of the world’s three top game machines—Microsoft’s Xbox having its first video game development centre in Chengdu, it is expected to be the third-largest large-scale game developer in China after Shanghai and Beijing.
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