BEIJING, April 19, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- A report from
People's Daily: The number of German companies in Taicang, east
China's Jiangsu province reached 500 as Beumer Group
settled there earlier this year.
During the past three decades, Taicang has consistently seized
business opportunities with the German companies based there and
created an optimal business environment for them and its successes
have been recognized by the authorities in both countries.
In November 2008, Taicang was
named a "Sino-German Enterprise Cooperation Base" by China's Ministry of Commerce and by
Germany's Federal Ministry for
Economic Cooperation and Development and remains the only city to
be recognized that way by both sides.
Why can this county-level city attract numerous German companies
to settle and thrive there?
The sound business environment and professional services that
Taicang offers are one of the secrets to the city's appeal.
"Meticulous government services" and "unimpeded communication
between the government and enterprises" are the most frequently
mentioned terms by German enterprises in Taicang when they speak of
the city's business climate.
Jan Assmann, general manager of
the Taicang company of Bernstein, a leading supplier of industrial
safety and enclosure technology from Germany, has been living in Taicang for nearly
20 years. He told People's Daily that the government of Taicang has
provided abundant favorable policies for German enterprises and the
business environment there is getting better and better.
He believes German companies flocking to Taicang has created a
cluster effect. For example, automotive parts manufacturers
settling in the city have attracted machine tool manufacturers,
which then attracted mold manufacturers. In this way, Taicang has
gradually established an industrial chain and supply chain centered
around automotive parts and machine tools, Assmann said.
The German Center Taicang was set up in the city in 2016, which
provides one-stop business services for nearly 50 enterprises
including those from Germany.
"We were attracted by Taicang's excellent business environment
and the professional services provided by the government," said
general manager of the center Marieke Bossek.
According to Bossek, Taicang High-tech Industrial Development
Zone has assigned a service specialist to every German enterprise,
who the enterprises can turn to for assistance whenever they
encounter difficulties or challenges.
"This efficient service has left a deep impression on me," she
said.
In recent years, German companies in Taicang have strengthened
their localization strategies, which not only advanced their own
development, but also helped with the standardized and massive
production of local enterprises. The rapid development of local
suppliers has helped German companies reduce production costs and
improve supply chain efficiency.
Chiron Group, a leading manufacturer of high-speed CNC machine
tools, is considered an "hidden champion" in this industry. The
group set up a factory in Taicang in 2012 and later moved its
China headquarters to the city,
said Willi Riester, chief technology
officer of Chiron Machine Tool (Taicang) Co., Ltd.
"Our machine tools require extremely high precision, and it is
essential to maintain close communication with both upstream and
downstream customers. Thanks to the cluster effect of the
China-Germany industrial parks in Taicang, the
supply chain here is stable, allowing us to conveniently and
swiftly obtain high-quality components," Riester said.
Currently, over half of the German companies in Taicang place
R&D locally, and over 90 percent of the early settlers have
completed capital increases and expanded production. The average
output value per mu (about 667 square meters) of German companies
has reached 14 million yuan
($1.93 million).
At the end of 2023, the New Energy Phase II Factory of a
manufacturing base of German manufacturer of rolling element
bearings Schaeffler Group was officially inaugurated.
Matthias Zink, CEO Automotive
Technologies of Schaeffler Group, noted that the group has expanded
its investment in Taicang 13 times, which totaled over 11 billion yuan. Taicang has become one of the
group's largest manufacturing bases globally, Zink added.
Over the past 30 years of cooperation with Germany, the local government of Taicang has
paid more and more emphasis to the exchange between Chinese and
German cultures, providing a comfortable, well-built, and
convenient business and living environment for German companies and
their employees.
For instance, Taicang has built a Rothenburg Street, where
German bakeries and restaurants can be found almost everywhere.
"The cityscape of Taicang is constantly improving, and the
environment has become more beautiful," Assmann said. "When I'm
free, I often take a stroll with my family along the Haiyundi Road
and the Rothenburg Street."
Taicang also hosts events such as beer festivals, marathon
races, Sino-German artist salons, and Sino-German table tennis
tournaments on a regular basis. It has built service facilities
like a Sino-German friendship kindergarten, attracting an
increasing number of Germans to settle there.
A series of policies that China
released recently have signaled the country's determination to
expand high-level opening-up. It has rolled out five new measures
to simplify the process for foreign nationals seeking to visit
China, revised the national
version of negative list for foreign investment, and lifted all
restrictions on foreign investment access to manufacturing.
It also put forward 24 specific measures to further optimize the
foreign investment environment and intensify efforts to attract
investment, and made continuous efforts to build a market-oriented
and world-class business environment governed by a sound legal
framework. These efforts are welcomed by German companies in
China.
A recent report released by the German Institute for Economic
Research showed that direct investment from Germany to China increased by 4.3 percent in 2023,
reaching a record high of 11.9 billion
euros ($12.79 billion).
Another report released by the German Chamber of Commerce in
China earlier this year
highlighted that over 90 percent of surveyed companies plan to
continue their business operations in China, with 54 percent of them intending to
increase their investments in the country.
"Since settling in Taicang in 2004, OASE has seen a continuous
increase in actual investment," said Shen
Ya, general manager of Oase Living
Water (Taicang) Co., Ltd.
"Over the past three years, our business has grown at an average
annual speed of 30 percent. In the future, the group will continue
to seize opportunities in China,
increase investment in China, and
deepen our presence in the Chinese market," Shen added.
"China's commitment to
expanding high-level opening-up has strong appeal to
foreign-invested enterprises. As global economic recovery remains
sluggish, China's economy has
shown a positive growth momentum. We hope that more German
companies can seize the opportunity and continue to invest in
China," Assmann said.
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