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BEIJING ETOWN IT: CLOUD COMPUTING SHAPES NEW HORIZONS
AUTO INDUSTRY: MOTORING AHEAD IN CHINA
CONTENTS1 Vibrant new global hub for business and ideas in Beijing’s ETOWN
16 Cloud computing shapes new horizons
7 Home from home for global brands in China
22 Curing the world’s ills
4 The gateway for China’s pioneering business leaders
19 Motoring ahead
10 A place to work, a place to live
25 The right tools for the job
13 Teamwork helps IT firms flourish
28 Facing tomorrow’s challenges
Chairman Richard Ensor Directors Sir Patrick Sergeant, The Viscount Rothermere, Christopher Fordham (managing director), Neil Osborn, John Botts, Colin Jones, Diane Alfano, Jane Wilkinson, Martin Morgan, David Pritchard, Bashar Al-Rehany, Andrew Ballingal, Tristan Hillgarth
Advertising production manager Amy Poole Journalist Simon ParrySenior manager Lily ZhuHead of digital Chris Hunt
This special report is for the use of professionals only. It states the position of the market at the time of going to press and is not a substitute for detailed local knowledge.
Euromoney does not endorse any advertising materials or editorial for third-party products included in this publication. Care is taken to ensure that advertisers follow advertising codes of practice and are of good standing, but the publisher cannot be held responsible for any errors.
© Euromoney Trading Ltd London 2015Euromoney is a registered trademark in the United States and the United Kingdom
Vibrant new global hub for business and ideas in
The remarkable rise and rise of Beijing ETOWN over the past two decades mirrors China’s transformation from the world’s workshop to a globally
competitive hub for innovation, technology and high-end industry
BEIJING’S ETOWN
Introduction
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CChina’s emergence as a major economic power was one of the most compelling narratives of the late 20th century. Today, the country’s transformation from manufacturing powerhouse to global centre for hi-tech industry and innovation is a defining story for the early 21st century.
In what seems the blink of an eye, labour-intensive production lines have been replaced by ultra-modern factory units. Shoe factories have made way for companies championing software design. China has decisively shifted its focus from labour-intensive manufacturing to innovation and hi-tech industry.
The technological tide sweeping through China has already been paralleled by other advanced nations at different stages of their history. What makes China’s story different, however, is that the evolution is taking place at an astonishing and unprecedented pace.
No location better reflects the transformation of China in the new millennium than Beijing ETOWN
Stand for a moment at one of the many busy crossroads in this meticulously planned industrial zone with its high-rise tower blocks and immense factory complexes complemented by five-star hotels and shopping malls and it is impossible to imagine that one generation ago it was farmland and rice fields.
The rise of Beijing ETOWN is a triumph of central planning and vision that few other countries would be capable of. And, as business leaders in the zone will tell you, strong government support is the driving force behind its continuing growth.
Global appeal
Just 20 years after the zone was approved by China’s State Council in August 1994, Beijing ETOWN is home to more than 10,000
– a 64-square-kilometre site in Yizhuang on the southeastern outskirts of the capital where, over the past two decades, a world-class centre for high-end industry and technology has taken shape.
Fields of dreams
In this thoroughly modern corner of the Chinese capital, a vast sprawl of former agricultural land that was once home to collective farms is now the most advanced and sought-after location in the country for innovative entrepreneurs and multinational companies.
Here, some of China’s leading companies and top entrepreneurs rub shoulders with executives from global brand names such as Mercedes-Benz, GE, Bosch, Johnson & Johnson, LG, Philips, Bayer and Shell.
enterprises from more than 40 countries and territories, including 120 projects from more than 80 companies listed in the Fortune 500. In that time, it has drawn in total investment of more than $40 billion. Over the past decade, its annual growth rates of GDP, total industrial output and fiscal revenue have exceeded 40%. At the end of 2013, total foreign and domestic investment had grown 36% year on year.
It is home to 485 national high-tech enterprises and – in a powerful reflection of its spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship – has generated more than 10,000 original patent applications.
Beijing ETOWN is divided into four key industry sectors – electronic information, biomedicine, equipment manufacturing and automobile manufacture. In each sector, Beijing ETOWN now holds a significant share of the city’s business in that sector.
The electronic information sectors account for over 50%
AT A GLANCE
more than 10,000 enterprisesfrom 40 different countries and territorieswith some 120 projectsfrom more than 80 companieslisted in the FORTUNE 500
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of output value of all such enterprises in Beijing, while the biomedicine sector accounts for around 50%, the equipment manufacturing sector claims a 20% share and automobile manufacture 15% of their respective sectors.
Cutting edge
Perhaps above all other sectors, the IT sector represents the central ambition of Beijing ETOWN in wanting to champion scientific innovation. Here, some of the most cutting edge technology in LED, digital TV, mobile communications and integrated circuits is being deployed.
Although they might not yet be household names, the Chinese companies here are world leaders in some of the most advanced technological fields, with one company featuring in this supplement making a respectable proportion of glass screens used for mobile phones and laptops worldwide.
Beijing ETOWN is also a national centre for cloud computing – a technology that
one of the zone’s business leaders describes as being this century’s equivalent of the introduction of grid electricity in terms of the effect it will have on the way data is stored and retrieved.
The bio-medicine industry park meanwhile is home to some of the leading companies, such as Bayer, alongside progressive Chinese companies such as Tong Ren Tang and Sino Biological, which has produced thousands of new treatments at its state-of-the-art facility.
In the auto-manufacturing zone, Mercedes-Benz has found an ideal base to expand its share of booming domestic vehicle sales, producing an E-Class model specially tailored for the Chinese market.
In the equipment manufacturing zone, companies such as Bosch, ABB, Schneider and SMC Pneumatics represent a cross-section of high-end equipment companies serving a global market from a base that has the advantage of the most modern infrastructure in the country.
Green thinking
The emergence of Beijing ETOWN marks a break from the past in more ways than one. Not only does it reflect a move away from a reliance on labour-intensive manufacturing but also a move towards increasingly environmentally aware practices.
The emphasis throughout Beijing ETOWN is on a green approach, with incentives and funding for companies that take steps to reduce their environmental impact, spurring a host of clear-sighted initiatives throughout the zone.
Water is used from a variety of sources to avoid wastage. Tap water, rain water, underground water and municipally renewable water, sewage water and recycled water are all carefully processed to avoid wastage. As a result, the zone was named the first National Water Conservation Demonstration Park in 2002.
Lifestyle choices
Perhaps the biggest change in recent years at Beijing ETOWN in
recent years, however, has been its gradual transformation from a place to work to a place to live. In the early years, most people commuted to work there from downtown because of its lack of facilities.
That is changing. The head of a leading Chinese company on the site told us: “Since 2009, there has been a big change. On the way to work, you see shopping malls, supermarkets and all kind of different facilities. A big portion of our employees have bought apartments and live here as well as work here.”
For Beijing ETOWN, that is an important step forward. It brings life and diversity into the zone and gives experts in different technological fields the chance to socialize and spend time together, fostering the cross-fertilization of ideas the zone was designed to encourage. Already, more than 3,000 foreign professionals have brought their expertise to Beijing ETOWN. As it continues to grow, it will become more and more a place for great minds to meet – and to turn bright ideas into brilliant reality. 3
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for China’s pioneering business leaders
THE GATEWAY
Domestic Companies
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IIt was one marvel of electronic engineering that even the most short-sighted visitor could not fail to miss at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January – an event billed as the global stage for innovation.
The huge Samsung 110-Ultra HD television took centre stage in more ways than one at the annual event with 2 million square feet of exhibition space that attracted 20,000 new products from more than 3,500 exhibitors from 140 countries and drew some 140,000 visitors.
While everyone will have seen the Samsung billing in the screen and on the stand, however, what most will not have known is that the screen itself was designed, engineered and produced by LCD panel maker BOE in Beijing ETOWN.
Although less well known than the household-name brands it produces for, BOE is one of the world’s top-five companies in the global display industry and its products are looked at by millions of people every day.
digital display industry simply didn’t exist in China.
Then, after the acquisition of a foreign business, BOE set up its first production line and gradually expanded across the country, opening factories in Chengdu, Hefei, Beijing, Ordos and Chongqing.
As well as making TVs giant, large and small, BOE is the number one maker of LCD panels for mobile phones and tablet computers worldwide, producing two out of every 10 mobile phone screens and three out of every 10 tablet screens.
Like scores of other electronics firms, its success story is rooted in the fertile ground of Beijing ETOWN, where its global influence and reach is continuing to be carefully nurtured, month by month and year by year.
Nurturing talent
For Zhang Yu, BOE’s vice-president, the ability of Chinese companies to compete on a global stage against much longer established electronics and technology firms is remarkable bearing in mind that in 2002 the
BOE now has six production lines, including a Gen 5 TFT-LCD line and a Gen 8.5 TFT-LCD line in Beijing, a Gen 4.5 TFT-LCD line in Chengdu, a Gen 6 TFT-LCD line and a Gen 8.5 TFT-LCD line in Hefei, and a Gen 5.5 AMOLED line in Ordos. A second Gen 8.5TFT-LCD line is being built in Chongqing.
In a field where cutting-edge technology is critical, the need to draw in expertise has been central to the company’s progression, particularly in the early years. “At first we recruited college students majoring in such subjects as micro-electronics, opto-electronics,
Beijing ETOWN is a greenhouse for innovative domestic Chinese companies to flourish and
reach out to a global marketplace – even though sometimes their products are much more visible than
their names
The screen for the huge Samsung 110-Ultra HD was designed,
engineered and produced by LCD panel maker BOE in Beijing ETOWN
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chemistry and automation,” he says. “We recruited people to train them and we sent them overseas to receive training.”
Today, the company has more than 10,000 engineers, with 800 of those focused on the critical area of research and development to keep BOE ahead of the curve as technology moves forward at a dizzying pace.
“This industry is changing really quickly,” Zhang says. “New technology is emerging every day. We have to work closely with the international industry.”
BOE has experts from Korea, Japan, Singapore and Europe working in its Beijing ETOWN base and has cooperation relationships with overseas institutions including Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US.
“This way, we train most of our employees ourselves and we also recruit talent from overseas. In the future we would like to strengthen our work in recruiting international talent,” says Zhang.
Thinking differently
The new generation of electronic engineers working at Beijing ETOWN represents a fundamental change in the attitude and position of entrepreneurs and businesses in China, Zhang believes.
“Before 2000, China was called a factory for the world,” he says. “We were doing the industrial work passed to us by countries in Europe, Korea and Japan and elsewhere. Our work was human-resource intensive.
“Then, with the development of the internet, people in China began to realize that with innovative concepts, they can change the industry. They began to realize the importance of innovation.
“Today, the new environment offers substantial new opportunities for young people. It is easy for them to start a new company, a new business, with a very small team. Look at the example of Jack Ma (founder of Alibaba). Everything becomes possible.”
The futuristic vision of BOE is
encapsulated by its factory floor in Beijing ETOWN, where vast LCD display screens are produced noiselessly by robotic technology, with not a single worker in sight.
It is a scene that neatly sums up the ethos of Beijing ETOWN, where the emphasis is on innovation and where employees are hired to think and to create rather than to sit for hour after mindless hour on gruelling production lines.
Breaking traditions
In a fast-moving and highly competitive industry, however, there is no room for complacency
and Zhang talks with conviction about the need for “disruptive innovation”. He says: “You have to break through the old industry and the old concepts.
“You have to keep on changing and improving. We have to keep up with the technology. If we don’t do that, we will be left behind the whole industry.”
BOE’s products are used by some of the world’s biggest names in electronics, including Huawei, Lenovo, Dell and HP, but the company is not content to stay in the background.
“We have a new logo which we started using in November,” says Zhang. “This means we have stepped up to a new stage. We will go more global and expand from business to business into the business-to-consumer area.
“In the past, we did relatively few overseas exhibitions. This year we have more plans to go overseas. In March we will attend the CeBIT show in Frankfurt and the Society for Information Display (SID) in America in June. This way, more people will know BOE in future.” 6
“New technology is emerging every
day. We have to work closely with the international
industry.”
Zhang Yuvice-president
BOE
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International Companies
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for global brands in China
HOMEHOME
from
Beijing ETOWN is an ideal home from home for an impressive A-list of global brand-name companies that use the hi-tech zone as a base for their China and Asia operations. Executives at GE Healthcare explain why being there
gives them a competitive advantage.
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WWhen in January GE Healthcare’s new leader John Flannery made his inaugural trip to Asia as global chief executive, there was never any question where his first port of call would be: Beijing ETOWN.
There, at the company’s base on January 15, he met hundreds of employees at a town hall event to discuss GE’s global development strategy as well as its China and Asia growth prospects, before his tour took him on to Tokyo and other Asian cities.
It was a visit that showed the strategic importance of China to GE Healthcare – and the importance of Beijing ETOWN as a long-term base for its operations across Asia.
GE Healthcare was one of the earliest of the big-name overseas companies to put down roots in Beijing ETOWN, identifying it as an ideal location when the zone was still more commonly known as the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Area (BDA).
“We have a great working relationship with BDA dating back
20 years,” says Jeff Sommer, GE Healthcare’s Asia global supply chain general manager. “The employees in the Beijing area are outstanding in terms of technical talent and outstanding with regard to leadership, and all the other skills we would be looking for in terms of growth.
Chen Young, Beijing general manager, adds: “The local government here is very focused on people development and we have been getting a lot of benefits in terms of talent development and we actually have some programmes funded by the government. The BDA government has done a lot and helped our business.”
China focus
GE Healthcare China has grown in step with Beijing ETOWN. Today, it is a $2 billion business with 7,000 employees and a 40,000-square-metre factory designing and making products for the local and global market.
“We would like to consider ourselves a Chinese company in China,” says Sommer. “In reality we are a multinational company in
China, but we are completely self-sufficient.”
That localized identity is critical for a global company operating in China, Sommer emphasizes. “It is important for us because it is important for our customers,” he says. “The reality is that our Chinese customers want Chinese-made products in the same way that UK customers like buying UK-made products.
“Ultimately we are here for our customers. The percentage of local customers is growing larger and larger. When I started here six years ago, less than 10% of products made here were for Chinese customers. Today, 30% of our products are made for Chinese customers and we expect that to continue to increase.”
Reaching out
The increasing emphasis on products designed and made in China for the China market is best illustrated through the development of items aimed at second-tier and third-tier Chinese cities, such as hand-held ultrasound scanners. 8
“The percentage of local customers
is growing larger and larger. When I started here six
years ago, less than 10% of products
made here were for Chinese customers.
Today, 30% of our products are made for
Chinese customers and we expect that to continue to increase”
Jeff SommerAsia global supply
chain general managerGE Healthcare
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“Historically speaking, going back a decade we were importing products designed in the US, Japan or Europe that sold well in your tier-one hospitals in tier-one cities,” says Sommer. “The big focus in the past three to five years has been to try to go out to tier-two and tier-three customers to design products that meet the specifications of different customers.”
In the same way that auto companies make different classes of car for different markets within one country, GE Medical produces a variety of different products with the same core functionality for different segments of the market.
“The biggest example is a handheld ultrasound device monitor so that a doctor doesn’t need the infrastructure of a hospital or the infrastructure even of a clinic because is a handheld device,” says Sommer. “That
product was designed in China for China.”
Loyalty bonus
GE Healthcare’s growth mirrors the increasing importance of and investment in healthcare across China as the country becomes wealthier, with a booming middle class seeking an increasingly sophisticated level of medical support.
It is a sector that demands constant upgrading of technology and ever better products to compete in the healthcare field – and that means hiring and retaining the best people available.
That means offering good remuneration with the support of local government incentives, but Sommer says there was another ingredient in GE Healthcare’s field of work that helped. “I believe that when you are making healthcare products, you are proud of what
you do,” he says. “People here make products that save people’s lives.
“When your mother, father or son or daughter go to a hospital and see they are using the equipment that is made in this factory, it makes a difference. Before the Christmas holiday, there was an employee whose father was in an ICU unit and he sent me a note to say how proud he was that the CT machine his father was diagnosed with was something that he actually made in the factory in BDA.
“That builds a real pride. We have a great leadership which, with the exception of myself and one or two other people is completely localized and understands what it takes to continue to attract and retain people.”
Future growth
Like many international
companies, GE Healthcare – which is enjoying annual growth of 10% – sees China as its future, and the future of China as a base in Beijing ETOWN where it has the infrastructure, government support and facilities to continue to expand.
GE Healthcare is already planning its next move – a shift to a new 60,000-square-metre headquarters within Beiing ETOWN on a new site nearby that will enable it to consolidate its existing facilities and create room for further growth.
“China is our biggest customer base and it is our fastest-growing base with wonderful suppliers,” says Sommer. “China is the factory of the world, so from a supply base you can get everything at a very cost competitive rate with world-class quality. And working here with such good government help gives China even more of an edge.”
GE Healthcare – which is enjoying annual growth of 10% – sees China as its future, and the future of China as a
base in Beijing ETOWN where it has the infrastructure, government support and facilities to continue to expand
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10
Infrastructure
WORKLIVE
A place to
a place to
Finding a location in the capital of the world’s fastest-growing economy is only one of the challenges in creating a successful hi-
tech industry zone. Having the infrastructure to take advantage of that location and make it a place to live – as well as a place to work – is a
far greater challenge.
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IIn today’s global economy, connectivity is everything. The ability not only to produce but to deliver seamlessly and without delay in an increasingly competitive business environment is central to the success of any enterprise.
The key ingredient in China’s phenomenal growth over the past three decades has been effective infrastructure, enabling manufacturers to export products around the world. It is an ingredient that has not been forgotten as the shift from a manufacturing to a hi-tech economy continues.
A decade ago, Beijing ETOWN might have seemed an odd location for a new hub for high-end, hi-tech industry, situated on a vast plain southeast of the capital that was once home to collective farms and fertile rice fields.
A fair distance from downtown where professionals preferred to live and from the Chinese capital’s main international airport, it took a leap of the imagination to envisage the transformation that would take
place in the intervening years.
Today, Beijing ETOWN has established itself as the beating heart of a new movement towards hi-tech, high-end industry in China, with first-class road and rail links combined with an increasingly impressive internal infrastructure.
And it is rapidly becoming a popular place to live as well as an effective location to work.
Rapid connections
Continually improving subway, light-rail and bus routes connect the zone to downtown Beijing
World-class new apartment blocks and housing developments are rising across Beijing ETOWN and it now has a range of first-class hotels, including a Holiday Inn Express and the Pullman Beijing South, popular with visiting overseas businessmen and corporate guests.
There are shopping malls, including Sam’s Club, and around 10 major supermarkets where residents can eat out, buy clothes and seek out entertainment such as IMAX cinemas. The zone also features a diverse range of restaurants – offering everything from western to Chinese to Japanese, Korean and southeast Asian food – that are little by little making Beijing ETOWN a place to live as well as a place to work.
Educational resources range from kindergartens and primary schools to middle schools and international schools popular with expatriate families. The Beijing Vocational College of Electronic Technology offers tailor-made, specialized training for companies within the zone.
while its network of roads link seamlessly with expressways linking Beijing and Shanghai and high-speed rail links, the fifth and sixth ring roads, the airport highway and other major urban routes.
Within the zone, there is a one-
stop government administrative building offering a full suite of services, including taxation offices, customs offices, industry and commerce services and inspection and quarantine services, to make running businesses as trouble-free as possible.
Sam’s Club
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With a public general hospital, specialized hospitals, a community health centre and 120 first-aid stations, the zone has a sophisticated public health service system, including the Beijing Tongren Hospital, which is famous for its world-class ophthalmic medical treatment.
Weekends in Beijing ETOWN offer many more distractions than a decade ago when residents tended to go downtown for their entertainment. Today, there is a golf course, a sports centre, libraries, digital theatres and book stores as well as some surprisingly lively nightlife.
Rising standards
“Before 2008, the infrastructure was good but most employees chose to live downtown – we had a shuttle-bus service for them,” recalls Zhang Yu, vice-president of Chinese LCD panel maker BOE.
“It was like Silicon Valley in those days,” he says. “In the daytime, there were lots of people working here, but in the evenings, there were very few people
around.
“Since 2009, however, it has been a totally different picture. On the way to work, you can see lots of shopping malls, cinemas, supermarkets and all different kinds of facilities being built. Today, a big proportion of our employees working here have bought apartments in ETOWN. They not only work here but they live here too.”
Chen Young, Beijing general manager of GE Healthcare, says a good proportion of new hires in the company of 7,000 employees are now choosing to live in ETOWN. “About 20% of our workforce live here but the percentage of new hires is much higher.
Property prices in the zone have risen slightly in recent years as more people make it their home. However, living costs remain relatively low compared with downtown Beijing – with considerable environmental advantages.
At a time when central Beijing is
often choked with traffic, ETOWN remains refreshingly free of tailbacks and hazy skies.
Keeping the skies as clear as possible is a priority. Since its very beginning, ETOWN has had a powerful commitment to creating as green an environment as possible. Every one of its street lights is LED and, with the government’s encouragement, companies appreciate the benefits of energy saving and a greener environment.
Runway success
The biggest change to the area’s infrastructure will come with the highly anticipated opening of a second international airport, provisionally named Beijing Daxing International Airport, and located just 20 kilometres from Beijing ETOWN.
The Rmb200 billion ($32 billion) airport, covering an area of 2,680 hectares, is due to be completed in October 2018. It will be linked to the city by a 37-kilometre subway and high-speed rail line.
The opening of the new airport will subtly shift the axis of Beijing in terms of its industry and infrastructure, aviation logistics industry, conference and exhibition trade and the location that high-end companies choose to operate from.
When the first flights take off from Daxing, Beijing ETOWN will find itself within easy reach of two major international airports, making it an even more attractive place not only to work but to live. 12
Living costs remain relatively
low compared with downtown Beijing
– with considerable environmental
advantages
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IT Sector Part 1
Beijing ETOWN is home to some of China’s most progressive new IT
companies. Their growth over the past decade has been a result of an unusual level of cooperation between different
companies and with the local government in the hi-tech zone
TEAMWORK helps IT firms flourish
IInformation technology (IT) is China’s business frontier for the new millennium. No other industry better demonstrates the country’s determination to shift from labour-intensive manufacturing to hi-tech, high-end industry and innovation.
Beijing ETOWN is at the forefront of this transformation. In the past decade, it has hosted and championed the development of more than 400 hi-tech companies whose fortunes have flourished thanks to the infrastructure and government support of ETOWN.
Today, the electronic information sector at Beijing ETOWN – which focuses on the development of integrated circuits, mobile communications,
digital TV and cloud computing – accounts for more than half the total output value of the industry in Beijing.
Pioneering business
One of the ground-breaking Chinese companies to do business in ETOWN is Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) which moved there in 2002 and in 2004 began operations at the most advanced semiconductor foundry in China at the Beijing site.
The state-of-the-art 300mm mega-fab foundry in ETOWN was a milestone in the country’s computer technology and helped trigger the rapid development both of SMIC and the IT sector at ETOWN as a whole.
offers a great deal of convenience.
“The companies here have a good working relationship with government officials, so it makes business easier. The ETOWN administration has supported many programmes for companies in the zone. In particular, it encourages cooperation between companies in ETOWN.”
Teamwork pays
For example, Xia says, a company directly opposite SMIC generates a lot of heat through its manufacturing processes while SMIC needs hot water for its production process. So a scheme was set up whereby hot water was pumped from the neighbouring company to SMIC.
“This was supported by the
From just a couple of hundred employees in 2004, the workforce at its Beijing ETOWN site has grown to 2,000 and the company today produces chips, cell phones, cameras and other electrical appliances for major companies around the world.
Rena Xia, SMIC’s director of public affairs, says there is a spirit of cooperation among companies in the zone that is helped by a strongly supportive local government that has made doing business much easier.
“We have an efficient government service and there isn’t a long process between the lower-level government and the higher-level government here,” she says. “Compared with other places, ETOWN as an economic zone 14
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local government,” she says. “They actively promote such cooperation. In another example, a department of the government built a connection between our company and a nearby water-handling company. They knew the technology of handling dirty water.”
Government involvement in the zone is hands-on and visible, Xia says, promoting a strong sense of community and cooperation among the different companies. At the same time, there is a continual improvement of facilities for people living and working in ETOWN.
“When there is a new school or shopping mall or a new development in the zone, the government lets us know,” she says. “I represented SMIC at an educational communication
meeting and reported back to my colleagues on it. They introduced the educational facilities to us and lots of the principals from the schools were there to give presentations.”
Innovation pioneer
The principle behind the government-business cooperation pact in Beijing ETOWN is summed up in the expression: “The government offers services, the companies achieve treasures.” That understanding underscores the relationship.
Companies bring their spirit of innovation to the zone while the government provides them with the tools to do the job and supporting institutions such as the Alliance for Research of Technology, which trains technicians and provides an
infrastructure to attract more talented professionals.
Businesses such as integrated circuit chip producer SMIC that make full use of the cooperation with other companies and the government benefit greatly. SMIC has successfully promoted its techniques for carving a line thinner than one-thousandth of a hair on a nail-sized chip.
The IT zone is a hotbed of innovation. A dancing red robot created in ETOWN made a big impression in an electronics exhibition last year. The robot was made using FPGA chips from Capital Microelectronics Co, the only company in the world outside Silicon Valley capable of making such chips.
Future plans
Cooperation with neighbouring
companies and the local government has been hugely beneficial for every party involved as Beijing ETOWN continues to enjoy stellar growth rates in an IT sector that is constantly breaking new ground.
“This is a new industry for China and the development of the industry has happened in the space of the last 15 years,” says Xia, whose company is now the largest in its field in China. “Our initial target was to be an international corporation and we have exceeded that target in every respect,” she says. “Here in Beijing ETOWN, we are growing together. One company grows and another grows in a comparable way. That way, the whole industry develops and ETOWN as a whole becomes more prosperous. We are all winners.”
The IT zone is a hotbed of innovation. A dancing red robot created in ETOWN made a big impression in an electronics exhibition last year. The robot was made using FPGA chips from Capital Microelectronics Co, the only
company in the world outside Silicon Valley capable of making such chips.
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NTSIT Sector Part 2
With an impressive collection of some of the country’s best and most innovative young IT experts, Beijing ETOWN is
creating China’s answer to Silicon Valley with a hub for the emerging cloud computing industry
CLOUD COMPUTINGshapes new horizons
AAsk any expert and they will tell you that the future of the IT industry isn’t in the stratosphere, the oceans or even on the information superhighway. It’s in the clouds.
Cloud computing – using a network of remote servers hosted on the internet rather than a local server or personal computer to store, manage and process data – is transforming the industry. Beijing ETOWN is at the forefront of that movement in China.
Cloud Valley, an umbrella organization for cloud computing start-ups, has flourished since being set up in 2010 by entrepreneur Edward Tian, a strategic partner of former Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang and the man credited with bringing broadband internet to China in the 1990s.
Tian sees huge potential for cloud computing in China, where it can open the door to a world of IT in particular for the hundreds of millions of people who cannot
Executive director Yang Li, a lean and energetic 44-year-old who would not look out of place in Silicon Valley, shares the sense of vision and limitless possibility for the adventure the companies are embarking upon.
“The world has changed,” he says in the modern open-plan setting of the Cloud Valley offices. “It’s not unlike the situation 100 years ago when companies used power factories to serve themselves before there was a grid to serve everyone.
“Cloud computing is as important a development as the electricity grid. In the next 10 to 20 years, many companies in China – maybe more than 50% of them – will change their computing system to a cloud service.”
Already, Cloud Valley is providing cloud computing services to two out of three of the country’s major telecom networks. It also has a symbiotic relationship with the Beijing
afford expensive computer systems and only have access to basic smart phones and laptops.
His goal, he said in one interview, is to use the breakthrough of cloud computing technology to give every citizen in China access to computers and information. His slogan is: “The price of a book, the power of a supercomputer.”
Big-money backing
It is this vision that has won the enthusiastic support of the government, which named information technology as one of the seven strategic emerging industries targeted for investment of hundreds of billions of dollars in its current Five Year Plan.
At the heart of the IT sector of Beijing ETOWN, that dream is slowly beginning to take shape with the rise of more than 30 start-up companies operating under the Cloud Valley umbrella at its 7,000-square-metre campus.
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Edward Tian’s goal, he said in one interview, is to use
the breakthrough of cloud computing technology to give
every citizen in China access to computers and information. His
slogan is: “The price of a book, the power
of a supercomputer.”
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ETOWN government, giving it a cloud computing service for its own administration.
Great minds
The cloud computing movement has created a community within a community in Beijing ETOWN of progressive young IT professionals who share and exchange ideas and set up businesses together.
They are a new breed of entrepreneur with attitudes that are markedly different from those of previous generations in China. “Before, people seldom wanted to get together and form a start-up company But now, start-ups are quite popular,” says Yang,
“We don’t think it’s a crazy thing any longer. In fact many people have this ambition. In Silicon Valley, ‘crazy people’ are quite common. If a person fails, they start up another company. Now people in China are changing their way of thinking and becoming more like this.
“They want to do something
themselves. They want to maybe be somebody one day. And government and venture capital are providing the funds to give them the opportunity to set up their start-up companies.”
Having those start-up companies in one area – China’s equivalent to Silicon Valley where ‘crazy people’ can bring their dreams to reality – is a vital ingredient in nurturing their spirit of innovation. “It is important that smart people work together so that more smart people want to join,” says Yang. “Communication is important in this industry.
“These innovative guys work together and communicate together and their innovative culture spreads to other people. We had one company here whose employees went on to create four more new start-up companies.
“We all work together and come up with new ideas and find new ways to serve people and to set up systems. Then they get many new ideas and these people need
investors – and someone comes along and says ‘This is a good idea. I can finance you.’”
Degrees of excellence
The development of China’s cloud computing industry relies upon an abundant supply of computer graduates. “One reason we chose ETOWN is the advantage of many colleges and universities in Beijing which can offer us talented people,” Yang says. “At the same time, we still recruit hi-tech people from America.
“Many of our CEOs come back from the US and Canada, from Silicon Valley. With this kind of technology, the US is still at the top globally, particularly in Silicon Valley. We want to work together with our partners to get experts to come from Silicon Valley to here.”
Yang says his ambition is to continue to generate more innovation in Cloud Valley. “We want to at first follow Silicon Valley and then develop our own technology.” It is a process that will
take years, he concedes.
“The US is the dominant power in this field and we need a long time to catch up. Even countries in Western Europe like Germany and Britain are still a long way behind Silicon Valley at the moment.
“In the past, our best graduates from places like Peking University and Tsinghua University went to the US to study further. But in recent years, I have noticed that many of our best graduates choose to initiate their own start-up companies in China instead.
“Sometimes they work together with someone who has come back from the US. Many people now come back to China and join an internet company or launch their own start-up company.”
The race is a long one and the gap between Silicon Valley in the US and China’s own version of Silicon Valley is undoubtedly narrowing, and as innovation continues to flourish, the sky – and the clouds – are the limit.
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China is the world’s fastest-growing car market – and Beijing ETOWN is home to a Mercedes-Benz plant that is creating luxury models tailor-made for Chinese drivers and is breaking new
ground in the country’s luxury car market.
MOTORING
AHEAD
AChinese president Xi Jinping and German chancellor Angela Merkel stood side by side in Berlin as Mercedes-Benz and its Chinese partner signed a billion euro deal to expand joint venture operations in Beijing ETOWN.
The presence of the two leaders at the ceremony with a host of other dignitaries underscored the importance of China to the luxury car market – and the vital role that Beijing ETOWN and the Beijing Benz Automotive joint venture, BBAC, has to play.
As well as the first engine-making plant for Mercedes-Benz outside Germany, Beijing ETOWN is home to two research and development departments that adapt vehicles and engines to Chinese requirements.
Speaking at the ceremony in March 2014, Dr Deiter Zetsche, chairman of Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler, said: “We are deeply rooted in China. The agreement we have signed today shows once again that we are making steady progress in China together with our longstanding
roads of Shanghai or Shenzhen.
“The importance of localization has been elevated to an unprecedented level, which has contributed to the development of domestic models with implications for product design and process quality management,” a spokesman for the Beijing joint venture tells Euromoney.
“In order to meet the special needs of Chinese users for the rear space, the production of the new E-Class cars is of the long-wheelbase version. Its luxurious spacious interior provides users with a unique driving experience.
“Since luxury cars for the Chinese market are bought mainly by younger users, the new E-Class cars have a lot of dynamic elements in the design, and the paint colour selection also offers more options.
“Additionally, since first appearing on the market, the new E-Class cars are given a specific vehicle tuning, based on China’s environment, climate and road conditions, so that the final product is precisely adapted to the needs of Chinese consumers.”
will see €1 billion used exclusively in 2015 to expand the production capacity in Beijing for passenger cars and engines.
Two variants of the new E-Class model are produced by the joint centre – the E-Class sedan and the E-Class sports sedan. Both models use the new four-cylinder and six-cylinder BlueDIRECT direct injection engines produced by the Beijing Benz engine factory in ETOWN.
The first Mercedes-Benz cars built in China – the C-Class – were produced in Beijing ETOWN in 2007. Three years later, in 2010, the first cars to be adjusted in design terms for the Chinese market rolled off the production line.
Chinese characteristics
That trend has continued and a key element of car production in China today is to adapt vehicles originally designed and produced in Europe and the US to the different needs and demands of the Chinese market. What drives well in Berlin and Boston, in other words, will not necessarily be ideal for the
partner BAIC (Beijng Automotive Industry Corporation).
“The Chinese automobile market continues to have great potential. We want to participate in this growth, also by expanding our local production.”
Accelerated production
Today, as Mercedes-Benz continues to step up its production and research capabilities in Beijing in an attempt to catch up with and overtake the Chinese operations of rival German car makers Audi and BMW, that potential looks as strong as ever.
Last year, despite a slowdown of economic growth, car sales across China still grew 9.9% year on year compared with16% in 2013 – a growth figure most global car manufacturing markets can only dream of.
In 2015, the Mercedes-Benz brand hopes to sell more than 300,000 vehicles in the country, two-thirds of them built locally at the plant in ETOWN.
The agreement signed in 2014 – part of a €4 billion joint venture – 20
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Home advantage
Another landmark moment for BBAC in Beijing ETOWN came in June 2014 when blocks, cylinders heads and crankshafts produced there were exported to Germany to be used in German-made Daimler products, incorporating the China factory into the global Daimler supply chain for the first time.
The spokesman says that the support from the ETOWN government in attracting talent, and providing facilities and business-friendly policies, has been pivotal in the development and growth of the joint venture.
As well as producing cars specifically tailored for Chinese consumers, Mercedes-Benz appears to be considering further localization steps that would make it the first luxury car maker to launch models in China before putting them on sale in Europe and the US.
Until now, cars have been
launched in Europe or the US first and China later. But in an interview with Automotive News in January, head of research and development at Mercedes-Benz Thomas Weber suggested that process could be reversed for future launches.
“From now on, China plays a major role for our global product development process,” he told the publication. “Why not be first at some point? … That’s the trend in my view.”
Global appeal
The slowdown in the rate of
growth has done nothing to diminish the appetite and ambition for growth in China among luxury global car brands like Mercedes-Benz. If anything, it has made it keener.
“China’s auto market has become a battleground for global car makers,” the spokesman says. “Although the 2014 growth rate in the auto market slowed, its potential is still great. A number of luxury car brands have gradually taken a localization strategy, so competition in the market will become more intense.”
One positive aspect in the arrival of the international brands is that they have brought advanced manufacturing technology and management concepts to China, the spokesman says. “On one hand, the technology will help us achieve a qualitative leap in Chinese own brand,” he says. “On the other hand, the unprecedented, fierce competition will bring a higher demand on the quality of employees, which will promote the overall quality of Chinese employees and provide valuable impetus for the development of China’s auto industry.”
Looking ahead, he says: “We will continue to focus on market development trends, to accelerate product development, to enhance localization and to enhance competitiveness.
“At the same time, we will continue to focus on the needs of users, providing products that are made in China, exclusively for Chinese customers.”
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THE WORLD’S ILLS
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Biomedical Industry
Biomedicine is one of the fastest-growing fields in China. Its success has triggered the
return from abroad of talented graduates who are flocking home to take up positions
with dynamic companies based in the biomedicine sector of Beijing ETOWN
CURING
IIn an interview on China’s national TV network, CCTV, broadcast in January 2015, a biomedicine graduate explained why she had decided to come home to China to work after studying biomedicine at a top US university.
Li Xiang said she found during her studies that her field of molecular biology in the US was advanced but was rarely practically applied to daily life. “I wanted to bring what I learned back to China to make products with it and finally change people’s lives with it,” she said.
Seven years after returning as a 26-year-old graduate, the TV station reported, Li has successfully established her own company, which designed a virus detection system for one of the most disturbing diseases of modern times, Ebola.
The testing system was taken to West Africa and was China’s first hi-tech product to be recommended by the World Health Organization. Li’s company was now working on more portable testing systems to use in Ebola-hit areas.
Nurturing innovation
The commitment of officials to nurture and develop the sector is evident at Beijing ETOWN, where one of the earliest home-grown companies to arrive in the specially created zone was Sino Biological Inc, a company specializing in protein and antibody production and quality reagents.
Explaining why the company chose Beijing ETOWN, a spokesman says: “We did have a number of choices and offers from other areas, but we finally decided to found our company in ETOWN because of the environment, the ETOWN leadership and the working personnel of the government.
“Since we arrived in ETOWN, we have enjoyed excellent service from the government’s staff and have been given a great deal of support in matters such as staffing and human resource management, research grants and intellectual property guidance. ETOWN has played an important role in our company’s growth.”
medical linear accelerators creating high-energy beams to destroy tumours, the first genetic screening chip for the clinical diagnoses of deafness, and China’s first completely humanized antibodies.
From a manufacturing base, China’s biomedical sector has in the past decade been transformed into an innovation hub through the investment of billions of dollars of government money and the setting up of innovation zones such as Beijing ETOWN.
Biomedicine was identified as one of the fields the Chinese government wanted to focus on in its 12th Five-Year Plan and international surveys suggest that China is rapidly overtaking the US and Japan in terms of investment in the field.
A drug innovation programme was launched by the Chinese government in 2009, leading to the creation of thousands of patents and a number of new products. China now says it wants to discover 100 new drugs by 2020 as part of its drive to boost the biomedicine sector.
Li is one of many bright graduates who study in Europe and the US and who are increasingly heading home to China to work as the country becomes an increasingly sophisticated base for biomedicine.
The return of highly skilled young graduates has helped create productive and innovative zones such as the biomedical area in Beijing ETOWN, where the sector has seen an explosion of world-beating creativity and innovation in recent years.
Medicine valley
The cluster of world-class biomedicine companies in Beijing ETOWN has pioneering new treatments and drugs and, with its high-end industrial facilities and leading role in research and development, can be seen as Beijing’s Medicine Valley.
Companies in the zone have already accumulated an impressive list of ground-breaking achievements, such as the creation of the world’s largest reorganized Protein Data Bank, the first
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Eight years after setting up in ETOWN, Sino Biological has more than 300 employees, most of them technical personnel. Nearly half of them not only work in ETOWN but live there too, the spokesman says.
In a fiercely competitive field, Sino Biological uses cutting-edge technology to produce the highest-quality proteins and antibodies at high speed and low cost, its spokesperson says, allowing it to offer superior-quality biological reagents at a bigger discount than competitors.
“We can produce up to 100mg monoclonal antibody in four to five weeks after receiving the antibody gene sequence information and we can carry out this type of antibody production project at a very high throughput, meaning we can produce hundreds of antibodies per month,” he says.
“This type of capability and capacity allows our customers – some of them among the top-10 pharmaceutical companies – to accelerate their antibody discovery
and development programmes.”
Hiring the best technicians available is vital to the success of a biomedical company and that process was helped by a considerable improvement in the living environment for scientists who choose to take an apartment close to their work laboratory in ETOWN.
“The local government in ETOWN has built many grocery stores, department stores, restaurants, schools, clinics and hospitals – things that a good living community requires,” the
spokesman says.
“Also, ETOWN provides a number of large recreation parks, entertainment facilities, sports facilities and commuter services. It has grown into a popular and comfortable living community.”
Attracting talent
It is a community where scientific collaboration and socializing between different groups of employees is enthusiastically encouraged. “There are a number of alliances covering different industries,” the spokesman for Sino Biological says.
“The ETOWN government promotes communication and collaboration among the biomedical companies within ETOWN as well as companies from other parts of China. The government here even provides financial support for various alliances to organize activities and meetings.”
By providing a warm welcome for scientists and giving them an environment where they can share ideas and concentrate on their life-transforming research, more and more top graduates are likely to be lured home from overseas to innovation centres like ETOWN.
“With so many top scientists and entrepreneurs coming back to China from studying and working abroad, there is no doubt that the biomedicine industry in China is entering the fast lane in the decade ahead,” the spokesman says.
“Innovation is the key to future success, and we believe China will play an even bigger role in biomedicine in future.”
“The ETOWN government promotes communication and collaboration among the biomedical companies
within ETOWN as well as companies from other parts of China. The
government here even provides financial support for various
alliances to organize activities and meetings.”
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F O R T H E J O B
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Equipment Manufacturing Sector
Beijing ETOWN has established itself as a leading base for the equipment-
manufacturing sector by offering powerful administrative support and meeting the expectations of hi-tech companies from countries such as Germany and Japan.
THE RIGHTTOOLS
MMultinational companies that set up in China often have two apparently contradictory expectations of their ventures: to localize and tap the vast Chinese market, and yet to receive the same standard of support and service as they would in their home countries.
That can be a dauntingly tall order in the hugely demanding and highly technical equipment-manufacturing sector, which has brought industry leaders such as Bosch Rexroth from Germany and SMC from Japan to Beijing ETOWN.
But the effective union of multinationals and a tailor-made industrial zone in Beijing ETOWN has proved a remarkably successful one, with some 80 companies involved in 18 different sectors of industry now operating in the equipment-manufacturing zone.
Access to a broad pool of engineering talent from Beijing’s universities and colleges combined with first-class infrastructure and administrative support from the local government has helped
Ltd, was completed in 1996 and within a year its capability was upgraded with the introduction of what was then the most advanced technological machinery available on the market.
By 1997, SMC’s made-in-China products were being exported to overseas markets for the first time and were so successful that the company quickly planned and put into operation further Chinese factories.
By 2014, with more than 4,200 employees in China, SMC’s China facilities were 35 times larger than they were in 1997 and its sales volumes had risen 42-fold in the previous 12 years, according to Fumitada.
The company’s aim, he said, was to continue its capital investment programme with China as the leading production base in its worldwide strategy. By introducing advanced production machinery, the company had increased its competitive edge over rival companies, he said.
Fumitada said he had seen
SMC, which began operations in Japan in 1959, set up its first plant in the BDA in 1994 and has since set up a second plant in the zone, as well as other factories in China, aiming to produce for export and to expand its presence in the Chinese market.
In an article in the China Daily newspaper, Sekiya Fumitada, vice-general manager of SMC described Beijing ETOWN as a “fortuitous choice” and explained how the decision to set up there had only come after a considerable period of research.
“The company chose to base itself in Beijing for a number of reasons,” he said. “One of the key reasons was that Beijing, as the academic, cultural and political centre of China, had access to a huge array of talented prospective employees. Furthermore, both the development opportunities and the infrastructure offered by BDA exceeded our expectations.”
Cutting edge
The first plant for the new company, called SMC China Co
scores of multinational companies become quickly established.
Once they have their foothold in Beijing ETOWN, the benefits of having a base in the Chinese capital and being in a position to produce tailor-made equipment-manufacturing goods for the vast Chinese market are quick to make themselves felt.
Mutual benefits
The strategic thinking behind the equipment-manufacturing area, according to Beijing ETOWN, is to provide big project support and to keep the industries in a cluster where they receive consistently strong supporting services. Among the multinationals drawn to ETOWN by that approach are Schneider, ABB, and Bluestar (Beijing) Chemical Machinery.
One of the earliest of the foreign enterprises to set up in Beijing ETOWN, also known as the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Area (BDA), was the pneumatic machine manufacturer SMC Corporation from Japan.
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immense changes in the time he had spent in Beijing. “I have witnessed the dramatic changes China has gone through in terms of industrial commercial systems as well as its environmental development,” he told the newspaper.
“SMC will continue to aspire to a brighter future alongside the ongoing development of BDG. SMC have written several glorious chapters together,” he added, concluding:: “Putting it briefly, SMC’s success today is directly due to BDA’s support.”
Importing expertise
By providing a base for some of the world’s leading manufacturers, Beijing ETOWN is bringing powerful reciprocal benefits for the Chinese manufacturing sector as well, luring some of the newest technology and global experts to the country.
One of the biggest names in the equipment-manufacturing sector in Beijing ETOWN is the German company Bosch Rexroth, which sees its highly successful operation
there as a key part of its global strategy.
With a 200-year history from its global headquarters near Stuttgart, Germany, Bosch Rexroth (Beijing) Co Ltd says on its website it is making contributions to “the vigorous development of China’s manufacturing industry”.
It is a symbiotic relationship, with Bosch Rexroth saying it specifically tailors products and solutions aimed at Chinese customers and seeks at the same time to help China become one of the world’s most advanced manufacturers.
Bosch Rexroth first set up an office in the Far East in Hong Kong in 1978 and its China operations now produce hydraulic components and systems, gearboxes for wind turbines and frequency converters.
Manfred Grundke, president of Bosch Rexroth, says of the Beijing ETOWN operation: “We will make full use of these new facilities and take advantage of BDA to strengthen our participation in the
fast-growing Chinese market while supporting Bosch Rexroth’s global development.”
Quality labour
Equipment manufacturing is becoming increasingly hi-tech but still relies on labour and one of the issues facing manufacturers in ETOWN and elsewhere is being assured of a supply of quality labour.
The manager of one major manufacturing plant says that keeping the shop floor fully staffed is a challenge for companies in
ETOWN and elsewhere. “The living costs in Beijing are not cheap and the inflation rate is a little high, so direct labour is an issue,” he says.
“Retaining shop-floor people is sometimes a challenge. But this is an area where the government gives us a lot of support. There is funding available for training both in engineering and in shop-floor labour.”
That constant and wide-ranging support from the Beijing ETOWN administration is clearly one of the most important aspects of doing business in the zone for many of the companies there.
“The infrastructure is good, the local government is very efficient and they offer us a lot of help,” says the regional manager of a multinational company in ETOWN. “They help us solve problems that enterprise companies cannot solve by themselves. In fact the local government is one of the most important factors in attracting business here. They do an outstanding job and they are always there to help.”
“The government gives us a lot of
support. There is funding available for training both
in engineering and in shop-floor
labour.”
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Conclusion
FACING TOMORROW’SCHALLENGES
Business is flourishing at Beijing ETOWN thanks to meticulous planning, first-class
facilities and powerful government support. Now the zone is preparing for the challenges
– and opportunities – that lie ahead.
SSpectacular achievement is always preceded by unspectacular preparation, it has been said. That maxim is certainly true of the remarkable rise and rise of Beijing ETOWN over the past two decades.
Meticulous and considerate planning, unstinting government support and the ability to create and nourish an environment where hi-tech, high-end industry can flourish have been the foundations of the zone’s extraordinary success.
Anticipating and preparing for the rise of the IT industry, the auto industry, the biomedicine industry and the equipment manufacturing industry have enabled Beijing ETOWN to provide an ideal home for the sectors’ best innovators.
Building a home from home for the thousands of overseas experts who have flocked to the zone has created communities of like-minded professionals, nurturing and encouraging their creativity and giving rise to new businesses and innovation.
Beijing ETOWN is an
Marathon in October and we have quite a few people who can run the full marathon and others who can run a half marathon.” He adds, with an apologetic laugh: “I can run 10 kilometres.”
Over at Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), director of public affairs Rena Xia says that one of her employees is dating an employee from nearby hi-tech company BOE – more evidence that life in Beijing ETOWN extends beyond the working day.
Competitive edge
Beijing ETOWN is more than just a place to work. It is a place to live. And it is a place to innovate and create, a place to realize ambitions and dreams that extend beyond the ordinary and the everyday.
The industries it embraces are highly competitive ones, relying upon a constant inflow of the best available talent from China and around the world. Securing and retaining that talent requires the best possible living and working environment.
“Before, there were only a handful of places to eat out – now there are so many,” he says. “There are new shopping malls and there are so many more people living here.”
Ten years ago, the streets of ETOWN would be quiet after 5 pm. The zone’s LED street lights would glimmer over an abandoned landscape of orderly intersections. Now, slowly but surely, nocturnal life is creeping into the zone.
Shops and restaurants are open until midnight. Five-star hotels and cinema complexes do a respectable trade. Sports centres and community halls are getting more evening and weekend bookings.
The reason is that in the hi-tech, high-end industries that make Beijing ETOWN tick, people want to live near work and want to live among the people they work with. Clusters have become communities, and communities have become neighbourhoods.
“People in my industry go out jogging together,” says Yang. “It’s very popular. We have the Beijing
aspirational, inspirational centre of excellence where the young, the driven, the talented and the exceptional can let their imaginations run riot and find vivid new inspiration among those around them.
It is not a place for the ordinary, the commonplace or the everyday. It is a place with a spirit similar to that of Silicon Valley where, to paraphrase Yang Li, executive director of Beijing ETOWN’s Cloud Valley, eccentricity is quite normal.
Lifestyle choices
Arguably Beijing ETOWN’s greatest achievement has been to create a genuine living environment out of what not long ago was farmland on the southeastern edge of the Chinese capital.
“Look at how many restaurants there are now,” remarks Jeff Sommer, GE Healthcare’s Asia global supply chain general manager, who has worked in ETOWN for the past six years and remembers how eerily quiet it used to be in the evenings.
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Good infrastructure is vital of course. One US business leader based in the zone says: “We knew before we came here that the Chinese government does a wonderful job in terms of infrastructure. Whether it’s an airport, train station or highway, it is one of the things they do the best.”
Today, however, a good environment is a clean environment and efforts have been made since Beijing ETOWN’s inception to provide a clean living environment with clean air, clean water and a responsible attitude to power use to make the zone fit for family life.
On a business level, the local government at Beijing ETOWN is profoundly involved in every aspect of the zone’s day-to-day operations, offering support, guidance and help at all levels to the enterprises in the zone.
There is a strong partnership between officials and business leaders and a powerful sense that they are embarked upon the same
mission together with the same goal: to produce world-beating innovation from an unrivalled working environment.
Forward momentum
Continuing spectacular achievement depends upon continuing unspectacular preparations – and the process of planning for the future at Beijing ETOWN is a constant and relentless one.
Already, the zone is welcoming in four new industrial sectors, each of which will play an important role in the future development not only of Beijing but of China as a whole.
The first sector is the productive service industry, which will transform the main street of the zone, Ronghua Road, into a street of innovation with 2,000 cutting-edge companies from around the world.
The second sector is creativity and the cultural arts sector, focusing on new media, film and television production, publishing
and cultural activities, making the zone a national centre for the arts as well as for innovation.
The third sector is the aerospace industry, coinciding with the new international airport opening nearby to provide a centre for airport logistics, aerospace studies and international conferences and exhibitions.
The fourth sector is the environment – green energy such as wind power, solar photovoltaic, green batteries and LED lighting. Beijing ETOWN aims to be the most advanced centre for green
and new energy production in northern China.
Like the entrepreneurs driving its phenomenal growth, Beijing ETOWN is restless, intellectually inquisitive and unapologetically ambitious. Today’s achievements are no more than milestones on the road to tomorrow’s challenges and opportunities.
In a fast-moving and fiercely competitive global environment, the success or failure that a business tastes tomorrow depends upon the amount of hard work and preparation it does today. Beijing ETOWN is working tirelessly to shape its own destiny.
Nocturnal life is increasing
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