Heilongjiang Province has recently launched 572 investment projects, with a total investment of 219.4 billion yuan (US$26.5 billion), to seek partners from home and abroad.

These projects are mainly related to equipment manufacturing, petrochemicals, organic food processing, pharmaceuticals and energy - the province's five pillar industries.

Priority fields

These industries are the major targets of Heilongjiang's newly launched industrial restructuring programme, as well as being sectors promising rapid growth.

With respect to equipment manufacturing, the province is advising investors to look at such areas as power generation equipment production and machine building, as well as production of railway hoisting equipment, automobile engines, agricultural equipment and aircraft.

In the petrochemical sector, production of ethylene and polypropylene will be priority areas for investment.

The province is planning to build a petrochemical industrial park in Daqing, which has the largest oilfield in China, and a large-area petrochemical industrial zone in its neighouring Qiqihar, Harbin and Mudanjiang, aiming to create the most important petrochemical base in China and a top-priority investment destination for petroleum-related companies from around the world.

In the organic food sector, the province expects domestic and foreign investors to participate in its initiative in building itself into China's most famous production base for soybean and dairy products processing and for the production of beer, linen, grain and husbandry products.

In the pharmaceutical sector, investment is recommended in the production of interferon, biological pharmaceuticals, traditional Chinese medicines and chemical medicines.

In the energy sector, the province is planning to expand its production capacity of the Hegang Power Plant, Shuangyashan Power Plant and the Third Power Plant of Harbin and expects to co-operate with Chinese and foreign investors.

In addition to these five pillar industries, Heilongjiang also encourages investors to join in its construction of infrastructure facilities. Forty investment projects, with a total investment of 35.3 billion yuan (US$4.27 billion), have been initiated in this field.

Advantages

Before making a decision to invest in Heilongjiang, investors are suggested to know about some of the basic conditions of the province.

Heilongjiang is famous throughout the country for its rich resources.

It is one of the largest producers in China of petroleum, coal, timber and grain. It ranks first in overall farmland area, as well as for production of grain, soybeans and organic food.

The province is also one of the most important manufacturing bases in China.

Investors may buy into almost any field because the province has formed a complete industrial system covering coal mining, timber processing, oil exploration, machine building, metallurgy, chemicals, food processing, electricity, pharmaceuticals, automobiles, textiles and electronics.

The industrial strength of Heilongjiang also lies in the fact that, during the past five decades, it has produced half of the nation's crude oil, as well as one-third of its timber, one-third of its power generation equipment, one-tenth of its coal, half of its railway cars and one-seventh of its grain overall.

Heilongjiang is also the most important province for Sino-Russian trade and economic co-operation. With 25 cities bordering Russia's Far East regions, the province is launching an all-round co-operation programme with Russia in such advantageous fields as energy, mining, forestry, agriculture, machine tool building, automobiles and aircraft building.

Having 606 scientific and technical research institutes and 48 higher learning institutions, and hundreds of thousands of high-quality technical professionals, the province offers a strong technical and human resources system for investors there.

To offer a better business environment to investors, the province has also made great efforts to improve its services, infrastructure and administration transparency.

The provincial and local governments have established special institutions for investment, offering one-stop services and handling investors' complaints.

(HK Edition 11/07/2003 page9)