|
|
|
|
|
|
Economy
|
|
|
Wenzhou exports
food, tea, wine, jute, timber, paper, Alunite (a non-metallic mineral used to make
alum and fertilizer). Alunite is quite abundant here and sometimes Wenzhou claims
to be the "Alunite Capital of the World". Its 10 main industries each excee-
ding 1.5 billion dollars are electrical machinery, leather products, general equipment,
power supply, plastic manufacturing, textile and garment, transport equipment, chemical
products, metal products and metal processing. From the 1990s, low-voltage elect-
ric appliances manufacturing became one of the major industries in Wenzhou, with
some of the large private enterprises setting up joint ventures with GE and Schneider.
Since 1994, exploration
for oil and natural gas has commenced in the East China Sea 100 km off the coast
of Wenzhou. Compa-
nies such as Texaco, Chevron, Shell and Japex have started to drill for oil but
the operations have been largely unsuccessful. Ne-
vertheless, it was reported in Chinese media that China's largest refinery project
totalling some 117 billion US dollar has been ap-
proved by the NDRC (National Development and Reform Commission) in the neighbouring
city of Taizhou, some 100 kilometer away from Wenzhou in the north. The project
is a joint venture invested by Sinopec, Quatar Oil and Shell.
Wenzhou is a city
full of vibrant business activities. Since China adopted the opening up and reform
policy, Wenzhou has been the first to set up individual and private enterprises
as well as shareholding cooperative economy in China. It has also taken the lead
in carrying out the financial system reform and the structural reform in townships.
Being a pioneer in utilizing marketing me-
chanism to develop urban construction, Wenzhou has won a number of firsts in China
and set many national records.
Without much dependence
on state investments, the development of the city really lies on the efforts of
the natives. The vita-
lity of the city results from business culture, which is the top feature of Wenzhou’s
economy. Wenzhou businessmen have set their feet on the way of accumulating capital
and also made themselves one of the important forces of the overseas Chinese businessmen.
“Big market with small commodities, small money with high capital intensity” has
become the prominent character of Wenzhou’s economy. Vitality also originates from
opening up of market. In recent years, Wenzhou has continuously deregu-
lated to embrace foreign investment and opened more widely to the outside world,
encouraging the aspiring spirit of the local people to start up businesses. With
enduring vitality and sustained imitation, the economy of Wenzhou has always enjoyed
healthy development from the manufacturing and sales of low-value products. From
1978 through 2008, the GDP of the city has increased from 1.32 billion RMB to 242.4
billion RMB with the gross fiscal revenue increasing from 0.135 billion RMB to 33.978
billion RMB, and the net per capita income for rural residents increasing from 113.5
RMB to 9,469 RMB. The per capita disposable income for urban residents increased
from 422.6 RMB in 1981 to 26,172 RMB in 2008, which is the third highest among Chinese
cities, after Dongguan and Shenzhen.
Wenzhou is the
birthplace of the China private economy. In the early days of opening up and reform,
the people of Wenzhou took the lead in developing commodity economy, household industries
and specialized markets. Thousands upon thousands of people and families were engaged
in household manufacturing to develop individual and private economy. Now, Wenzhou
has 130,000 private-owned enterprises. Among them, 180 are group companies, 4 China’s
top 500 enterprises and 36 national 500 top private enterprises. The quantity, industrial
output, tax, export and number of employees of the private enterprises account for
99%, 96%, 75%, 95% and 80% of the whole city respectively. There are 27 national
production bases such as “China’s Sh-
oes Capital” and “China’s Capital of Electrical Equipment”, and 40 China’s famous
trademarks and famous-brand products and 67 national inspection-exempt products
in the city. The development of private economy in Wenzhou has created the “Wenzhou
Economic Model”, which gives great inspiration to the modernization drive in China.
|
|
|
|