Introduction
Established in 1992, Xuzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone (XZETDZ) has a total development area of 19.8 km2. It is located in Xuzhou city in the northern part of Jiangsu Province. The zone is 6.8 km from downtown Xuzhou and 1.8 km from the Railway Station.
Investment Climate
Xuzhou is the biggest city in northern Jiangsu. In 2003, its GDP reached RMB 90.5 billion (USD 10.94 billion). Xuzhou used to be an important manufacturing and coal production base. But its importance has declined due, among other reasons, to the depletion of natural resources.
Xuzhou is at the junction of four provinces, namely Shandong, Jiangsu, Henan and Anhui. Although it is a very important strategiclocation, especially in the military sense, the regions around Xuzhou are relatively backward, which further hamper the development of Xuzhou.
Nonetheless, Xuzhou is still an important city, as least as a transportation hub in northern Jiangsu. Two of the most important railways - Longhai (Lanzhou to Lianyungang) and Jing-Hu (Beijing to Shanghai) pass through Xuzhou. The largest canal in the world, Jinghang Canal (Beijing to Huangzhou), also passes through Xuzhou.
Meanwhile, narrowing the gap between northern Jiangsu and southern Jiangsu has become one of the top tasks for Jiangsu province. Xuzhou is an instrumental city for the achievement of this target. Key issues in this regard include maximizing the convenience of the transportation network in Xuzhou, optimizing the huge pool of human resources and restructuring large state-owned enterprises.
According to the master plan, XZETDZ is divided into six subzones, namely, Taiwan Industrial Park, Environmental Industries Park, Mechanical Industry Park, New Materials Industry Park, Education Technologies Park and the residential area.
Many major MNCs have established their agencies and offices in XZETDZ, such as Caterpillar, Liebherr and Chia Tai Group. The state-level R&D Center of Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group is also located in XZETDZ.
