By Jean-Charles Briand

July 24 - Located in Ningbo’s Beilun District, the Ningbo Economic and Technical Development Zone, one of China’s earliest and largest national development zones, represents a well-developed economy. The zone, approved by the State Council in 1984, currently covers an area of 29.6 square kilometers. A bonded logistics zone, a free trade zone, an export processing zone and the Ningbo Daxie island development zone are also located nearby.

Throughout its 24 years of operation, industries historically important in Ningbo such as textiles and food processing, as well as automobiles, machinery and equipment manufacturing, have used the NETDZ as their preferred export base. In 2005 the GDP of the zone reached RMB23.40 billion while the total investment amounted to US$2.59 billion, and the contracted FDI was US$1.05 billion.

Newer industries such as the petrochemical and chemical industry, the steel industry, the papermaking and shipbuilding have also established themselves in the NETDZ. The zone is now equipped to deal with petrochemical, as several berths have been built to accommodate their incoming raw material. Read the rest of this entry »

July 23 – Despite export rates slowing to 21.9 percent for the second quarter of the year compared to last year’s 27.6 percent, the government says it remains confident about the country’s economy for the remaining months of this year.

June exports only rose by 17.6 percent compared to May’s 28.1 percent.

The Ministry of Commerce says that will maintain the new policies implemented at the beginning of the year in the face of slowing exports.

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