Chinese city of Weifang wants investment from Portuguese chemical companies
[ 2006-04-20
]
Weifang, China, 20 April – The city of Weifang, in the Chinese province of Shandong, wants to attract investment from the Portuguese chemical industry, Wang Xiulu, the city’s head of promotion and investment, said Wednesday.
“Economic cooperation with Portugal is important so that we can diversify and internationalize our economy, and our major interest is to attract companies from the chemical sector to Weifang,” Wang told Portuguese news agency Lusa on the sidelines of Weifang International Forum for Economic Cooperation and Development, where Portugal, together with Germany and Malaysia, is a highlighted country.
One of the big investments the city ahs attracted is the signing of a partnership between Weifang Yaxing Chemical and Lanxess, of German group Bayer which, in 2005, moved a production unit from the United States to Weifang with a production capacity of 12,000 tons of hydrazine hydrate, a chemical used in the pharmaceutical and water treatment industries, representing an investment of US$23 million.
“Weifang hosts projects from companies in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and other European countries and we also want to begin our economic cooperation with Portugal,” Wang said, adding that, “the main objective of the meeting with the secretary of state is to boost economic cooperation with Portugal and discuss carrying out projects of common interest.”
In 2005, Weifang, a city with 8.5 million inhabitants and whose main income is from the manufacturing industry, attracted US$38 million in investments, according to Wang.
Wang also said that the tax and customs benefits that the city provided to new investors were the biggest factor for attracting new companies, including a 50 percent reduction of total taxes paid, local tax exemption and payment of provincial and national taxes by city authorities, as well as value added tax (VAT) exemption.
The Weifang government has said that preferential foreign investment sectors were nanotechnology, chemical engineering, new materials, electronics, information technology, and real estate development. (macauhub)
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