Guangdong Market Opportunities - Urban Economies with Various Characteristics

Shenzhen City

Shenzhen is located in southern part of Guangdong province, bordering Hong Kong along a river, situating in Pearl River Delta, with a total area of 1948.69 square km. Shenzhen Special Economic Zone was the first of its kind in China and developed the fastest. Now, Shenzhen has developed from a frontier town into a garden city with solid economic strength, complete urban functions, good ecological environment, civilized society, sound legal system and rich vitality.

1. General Survey of Economic Development

Since Shenzhen was established, the annual average increasing rate of GDP in Shenzhen is approaching 30%. Its GDP in 2003 was RMB 286 billion, up by 17.3% over the last year. Industrial output value totaled RMB 507.377 billion, up by 29.1%. Its total import and export amount was US$ 117.41 billion, up by 34.6% including an export value of US$ 62.97 billion, up by 35.3%, and import of US$ 54.437 billion, ranking first for 11 years between the middle and big cities of the country. By the end of 2003, the FDI stock reached US$ 36.23 billion, up by 13.6%.

2. Unique Advantages and Development Characteristics

(1) Shenzhen is a base for hi-tech products and production research. Shenzhen is a pace setter for the nation in the clothing industry, gold and jewelry industry and printing industry. Shenzhen is a production base, R&D base and transaction base of hi-tech products including computer and parts, communication equipment, audio visual products, optical and electromechanical products, biological engineering products, etc. Shenzhen has over 1500 factories producing supporting parts of computer, which produce almost all computer parts except chips. Their annual supporting ability is over 30 million sets. Now Shenzhen becomes an assembling center of electronic products in China’s mainland.
(2) Shenzhen owns an advanced logistic system. Shenzhen is only city with ports of aviation, sea and land. Shenzhen port ranks No. 6 in the world big container ports. It has setup 6 international cargo lines. The customs between Shenzhen and Hong Kong is open 24 hours a day and paper documents are not required. And Western Bridge is to be built. Shenzhen and Hong Kong will plays its own complementary advantages.
(3) Financial sector develops very rapidly. Shenzhen has initiatively setup its own modern financial system. The first foreign bank, share listed company, commercial bank, insurance company, foreign exchange center, joint venture financial company, electronic financial balancing center, etc, were located in Shenzhen. The banks in Shenzhen go first in business cooperation and competition.