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Share development opportunities and create a better future China's industrial city Wuhan
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Share development opportunities and create a better future China's industrial city Wuhan

Continue to expand international "friend circle"

Wuhan is the capital city of Hubei Province, with a population of more than 10 million. Known as the “thoroughfare of nine provinces”, it is located in the central region of China, where the Yangtze River and the Han River meet.

Wuhan is an important birthplace of China’s modern industry, and the “industrial center” has always been its “city card”. A hundred years ago, bolt-action rifles made in Hanyang could be compared with Tianjin and Shanghai. At the beginning years of the founding of New China, a group of enterprises such as Wuhan Iron and Steel Corporation and Wuhan Heavy Duty Machine Tool Corporation settled in this city. Now, the headquarters of the three major state-owned enterprises, Dongfeng Motor Corporation, China Information Communication Technologies Group Corporation, and China Three Gorges Corporation, are located in Wuhan successively.

The Yangtze River and the Han River meet in Wuhan.

In 2022, Wuhan’s GDP reached 1.89 trillion RMB, a year-on-year growth of 4.0%. Wuhan is the leading city of central China, and ranked eighth among cities in China, showing strong economic resilience. According to the expected GDP growth target of 6.5% in 2023, Wuhan will be the first city in central China of the “2 trillion club”. Now, Wuhan insists on taking innovation-driving as the leading strategy of city development, building modern industrial system, accelerating the construction of the hub of domestic and international dual circulation, and creating a new highland of opening-up.

Opened a new chapter of cooperation 

For more than a hundred years, Wuhan and Germany have had increasingly close economic and trade exchanges, and cooperation in medical care, education and culture has yielded fruitful results. In 1888, Germany established a consulate in Hankou; in 1903, Siemens became the first foreign company to enter Wuhan; in 1982, Wuhan and Duisburg became the first sister cities between China and Germany; two years later, Wuhan hired Werner Gerich as the general director of Wuhan diesel engine factory, which is the first foreign factory director hired by state-owned companies after China’s reform and opening up.

In September 2019, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Wuhan. The two sides reached a number of consensus on economic cooperation, and discussed to build Wuhan Sino-German Industrial Park. On November 7th 2019, a decision has been made at the Wuhan-German Enterprises Conference to build the park in Caidian District, which opened a new chapter in the cooperation between Wuhan and Germany. 

The Sino-German Industrial Park has a planned area of 17 square kilometers, focusing on new energy vehicles, intelligent and connected vehicles, intelligent manufacturing, electronic information technology and modern logistics, a leading area of international industrial cooperation in Wuhan. 

Enterprises’ Home in the Sino-German Industrial Park

After more than three years of construction, the infrastructure and public supporting facilities of the park are becoming more adequate. Modern factories and R&D buildings are lining up, with spacious and flat roads extending in all directions. Now, relying on its superior policy services and environmental ecology, Sino-German International Industrial Park has attracted nearly 100 Chinese and foreign enterprises.

High-quality German-funded projects such as the world's largest factory of Webasto, a leading German car sunroof manufacturer, Siemens industrial internet empowerment center, Thermoplus environmental technology warmepumpe R&D center, Osann’s second headquarters and R&D and manufacturing center, have successively settled down in the park, formed the largest concentration of German-owned manufacturing enterprises in Central China.

The Sino-German Industrial Park like a bond, connects Wuhan and Germany closely. A person in charge said that in the next five years, the park will make great efforts in attracting projects, strengthening functions, improving services, enhancing carrying capacity and development capacity, to gather more than 200 industrial enterprises, reach an industrial output value of 100 billion RMB.

Now, Wuhan has attracted more than 100 German-funded enterprises, covering the fields of automobiles and parts, equipment manufacturing, biological medicine and medical equipment, including Siemens, Metro, Fresenius, Henkel, Bosch, and other Fortune 500 enterprises.

In recent years, Wuhan continued opening up and deepening economic and trade cooperation with Europe. In 1992, Dongfeng Motor Corporation and PSA Peugeot Citroen jointly established Dongfeng Peugeot-Citroën Automobile Company, headquartered in Wuhan, thus opening the prelude to the rapid development of Wuhan’s automobile industry. Now, the scale of the industry is nearly 350 billion RMB, ranking first among cities in Central China. 

Up to now, European enterprises have set up more than 500 companies in Wuhan. For many years, the EU has been among the top three trading partners of Wuhan.

Right time to invest

Located in Wuhan, Huanghe Tower is one of the Four Famous Towers in China.

Wuhan is a city with a complete range of industries. Wuhan has a complete industrial system, with 38 of the 41 industrial categories. Wuhan is the world’s largest R&D and manufacturing base for small and medium-sized panels, the world's largest R&D and manufacturing base for optical fiber and cable, and an important automobile R&D and manufacturing base in China. It has strong manufacturing capabilities in steel, petrochemical, and shipbuilding, and has four national industrial bases including storage, aerospace, network security innovation, new energy and intelligent connected vehicles.

Wuhan is a city with vitality and innovation. Wuhan has 92 colleges and universities with millions of college students. The rich resources of higher education provide a steady intellectual support for the "New Made in Wuhan". In April 2022, Wuhan was approved to build a scientific and technological innovation center. Up to now, there are 12151 high-tech enterprises located in Wuhan. In the ranking of global scientific research cities released by Nature magazine, Wuhan ranks 5th in China and 11th in the world.

Wuhan is a city with smooth transportation. It is an important transportation hub intertwined with highways, railways, aviation, and inland waterways in Central China. Wuhan has three national first-class ports, 13 designated ports of entry goods. The total logistics cost is 1.5% lower than that of the whole country. Wuhan’s 4-hour high-speed rail circle covers 80% of China’s important cities, and near-sea shipping lines reach directly to Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, and Russia. The China-Europe freight train (Wuhan) covers 76 cities in 34 countries in Eurasia.

Wuhan is a livable city with great environment. It has a history of 3500 years. There are 165 rivers running across the city and 166 lakes dotted around. The water area accounts for 1/4 of the total area of the city, with 43% of green coverage. Wuhan is suitable for living, business and innovation. 

Wuhan is a livable city with great environment. Photo shows the greenway of East Lake.

In February, Busch, the world leading enterprise in vacuum equipment industry, signed an investment project with Caidian District of Wuhan, planning to build a production and sale base in the Sino-German Industrial Park. This is Busch’s largest investment project overseas.

Wuhan’s superior geographical conditions, transportation advantages, and rich resources of universities and scientific research institutes are one of the reasons that Busch favors Wuhan. Sami Busch, the CEO of Busch, said in an interview before that he was looking forward to technical cooperation with top universities in Wuhan.

As an important node city of the "Belt and Road" initiative and a core city in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, Wuhan carries several major national strategies such as the rise of the central region, the coordinated development of the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of Yangtze River, the construction of a national independent innovation demonstration zone, and the construction of a national pilot free trade zone. With its good geographical location, industrial foundation, scientific and educational talents, investment environment, ecological environment and other advantages, Wuhan is increasingly favored by global investors.

Up to now, Wuhan has successively established cooperative relations with more than 110 international cities, established trade relations with more than 220 countries and regions. More than 7500 foreign enterprises have settled in Wuhan, including 309 Fortune 500 companies.

Strong industrial foundation and broad prospects for cooperation

“China is the most important market in the world, and Wuhan, as a megalopolis in Central China, has strong economic vitality and resilience.” Dieter Böning, president of VDHC, believes that Wuhan is a city with great energy, and hopes more German companies can develop in Wuhan, and become the pioneer of globalization together with the vast number of outstanding Chinese companies.

At present, Wuhan is anchoring the position of the national central city, the core city of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and an international metropolis, accelerating constructions of the national advanced manufacturing base, the source of industrial innovation, the pioneering place of digital empowerment, and the model of transformation and upgrading, to be the pioneer, leader and the main force in Hubei’s construction of national pilot zone for fostering new development dynamic.

Transforming and upgrading traditional industries, preempting emerging industries, and planning future industries… Over the years, Wuhan has continued to build a complete industrial system. According to a responsible person from Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, Wuhan is currently strengthening industrial clusters, accelerating the establishment of an advanced manufacturing system with high quality, large scale and well industrial structure, and making breakthroughs in the development of optoelectronic information, automobiles and parts, high-end equipment, biological medicine and general health, green and low carbon, digital economy, and other key industries.

During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, Wuhan will follow the trend of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, combined with local conditions, to focus on building "965" modern industrial system led by strategic emerging industries, supported by advanced manufacturing, and dominated by modern service industries. Wuhan will form a prospective layout of optoelectronic information, automobiles and parts, equipment manufacturing, biological medicine and medical equipment, hydrogen energy, and other industries.

Photo shows the scenery of "China Optics Valley" in Wuhan.

At the same time, relying on the construction of the national memory base, Wuhan will create a "World Optics Valley" with global influence; relying on the national new energy and intelligent networked vehicle base, Wuhan will create a world-renowned "China Auto Valley"; relying on national network security talents and innovation base, Wuhan will build a "China Internet Valley" focusing on the network security industry; relying on the national aerospace industry base, Wuhan will build a "China Star Valley" that coordinates the development of the entire industry chain.

Photo shows the scenery of "China Auto Valley " in Wuhan.

"We sincerely invite entrepreneurs from all over the world to join hands with Wuhan to share opportunities and create a better future together." Wuhan Government recently invited entrepreneurs from all over the world and promised that Wuhan will create favorable conditions for entrepreneurs to develop in Wuhan, build up a community of business, share development opportunities, and create a better future together.

 

Source: Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology

Investment hotline: +86 02785316863

 

China MinutesKailun Sui

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