A picturesque residential community shows the Nantong zone's excellence in both business and living environments. Photos Provided to China Daily

The Administrative Center of the Nantong Economic and Technological Development Zone.

As one of the first 14 national development zones, the Nantong Economic and Technological Development Zone in Nantong, Jiangsu province, is among the top 10 development zones in China having the largest potential of investment for multinational corporations.

Under the approval of the State Council, the zone was founded in December 1984. At present, it has a total area of 146.98 sq km.

The main reasons for its great potential to invest is that the development zone has a unique geographic advantage, a good investment environment, a management mechanism in line with international standards, as well as a turnkey service which make all of the investors feel secure and convenient, said Chen Dexin, Party chief in the development zone.

Located in the central part of China's coastline and on the northern bank of the Yangtze River, it is an important ocean-shipping hub in the Yangtze River Delta region.

The development zone was also granted as the National ISO14000 Demonstration Zone by the State Environmental Protection Administration. ISO14000 is an internationally practiced environment management standard for an enterprise or an administrative region.

The Nantong zone has to date attracted investors from nearly 40 countries and regions, which have invested in more than 700 enterprises with a total investment of more than $10 billion. Among these, 50 enterprises were funded by the Fortune 500 companies.

Currently, based on its pillar industries including modern equipment manufacturing, new materials, new energy, biomedicine and modern textile fibers, the development zone has formed nine major industrial parks, which can meet the needs of various industries.

"We will promote the upgrading and transformation of these parks through a series of measures so that the investors could enjoy the services in Nantong which are even better than those in their own countries," Chen said.

Another thing making the zone attractive to multinationals is that the local government offers more incentives for investors than other regions, said Chen.

In 2009, the zone's gross industrial output value reached 95.14 billion yuan, up 31.9 percent year on year.

At the same time, its fixed-asset investment amounted to 15.7 billion yuan, increasing by 28.8 percent.

Also in last year, when the world economy was in the shadow of financial crisis, the zone had seen the establishment of 22 new foreign-funded enterprises.

In addition, foreign investors had increased investment in 18 existing enterprises. As such the newly registered foreign capital amounted to $439 million.

At present, the Nantong Economic and Technological Development Zone is home to 150 large projects each with an investment of more than 10 million yuan, including 71 projects each with over 100 million yuan.

The call center of C-Trip, China's leading on-line travel service company, is the largest in Asia.

(China Daily 05/01/2010 page20)