Home » City specials » Chengdu
Technology heavyweights flock to city hub
By Zhu Shenshen |
December 4, 2012, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
Editor's note:
Chengdu, capital of China's southwestern Sichuan Province, is renowned as being the home of the panda, plus much more besides. Next year, the city will host the prestigious Fortune Global Forum, acknowledging Chengdu's growing reputation as a major business center. Much of this success can be attributed to the city's fast growth "can-do" attitude, together with its relaxed lifestyle. It's a combination proving every bit as appealing as Chengdu's cute black and white natives.
A senior manager at navigation device manufacturer Garmin's facility in Chengdu said he was very surprised when the Taiwan-based company began recruiting staff in the capital of Sichuan Province.
"The graduates here have strong hands-on and practical skills," said operations director Neil Yueh. "Their talent was comparable to that of some Taiwan postgraduates and even some of our own engineers."
Garmin, the world's top navigation device and service provider, chose Chengdu as the site of its sole research center on the Chinese mainland.
Besides Garmin, other overseas technology heavyweights in the city include Intel, Cisco, Dell and Foxconn.
Investors in the city cite its supply of well-educated talent, mature industry chains and comfortable lifestyle as principal reasons for doing business here.
At the end of 2011, more than 50 Fortune 500 IT firms had invested in Chengdu, earning the city a reputation as the biggest technology hub in China's inland western region.
Half of all global computer chips are now made in Chengdu, and about 20 million iPads were manufactured there last year.
Garmin, with more than 100 staff in Chengdu, is located in the Chengdu Tianfu Software Park, the hub of the city's software and services industry.
"It was a rural area when I came here several years ago," said park President Christine Du, who hails from the city of Dalian in northeastern China. "Now it's became a mature commercial and residential center with thousands of engineers."
Chengdu taxi drivers who looked puzzled if you asked to be taken to the park in 2008 now know every gate of every zone in the park, she added.
More than 400 firms have gathered in zones A-H, which generally comprise the heart of the national software industry. Companies there include IBM, SAP, NEC, Siemens, Philips, Tencent and Huawei.
In 2011, revenue from software concerns in Chengdu was 100.1 billion yuan (US$16 billion), or about 5 percent of the national total and 56 percent of the total in the western China region.
Employment in the software industry rose to 230,000 last year from 13,000 in 2001.
By 2015, industry revenue is expected to surpass 320 billion yuan and employment more than 400,000, according to Wang Rui, who is responsible for the software industry at the Chengdu Economic and Information Technology Commission.
"We are the No. 1 software city in west China," said Wang. "We are going to be a globally competitive software industry center by 2015."
Chengdu has some advantages in pursuing that goal: an educated workforce and relatively low labor costs.
The innovations that underpin development of the industry are hatched in more than 2,700 scientific research and development organizations, employing almost half a million researchers. Many come from Sichuan University and from the Chengdu-based University of Electronics and Technology of China.
The city has made great efforts to woo professionals from developed coastal areas and from the ranks of Chinese nationals returning from abroad. A special fund has been set up to provide funds to professionals with bright new ideas to develop.
Tianfu Software Park also provides training courses on everything from how to make smart business presentations to handling management stress.
Intel, under the slogan "Intel Inside Chengdu," has invested more than US$600 million in Chengdu since coming to the city in 1993. Between 55 percent and 60 percent of the company's computer chips are manufactured in the city, accounting for half of its global sales.
"Intel's investment has been the dawn of Chengdu's IT industry," said Wang. "It has resulted in a whole new industry chain."
In 2010, Dell announced it would spend more than US$100 billion in China over the next decade, including Chinese procurement and a new manufacturing plant in Chengdu.
"The strong Chengdu workforce and our new operations there will better position Dell for additional growth opportunities in western China," Amit Midha, now Dell Asia's president, said at the time.
Ge Jun, executive director of Intel China, said the surging need for microprocessors in western China, where Dell and Foxconn are now located, was a primary reason for Intel's commitment to Chengdu.
"With other global PC makers and ventures contemplating expansion in China's interior regions, Intel plans to ensure timely chip supplies with the Chengdu distribution center," Ge said in a recent interview.
Foxconn, the world's biggest contract manufacturer of consumer electronics, also has invested in Chengdu. Under contract with Apple, Foxconn made 13 million iPads in the first five months of this year.
Around all these giants, related industries and smaller companies have sprung up in areas such as management software, information security and digital media.
China Mobile, the world's biggest mobile carrier, has set up mobile music base in Chengdu.
Chengdu-based Weway Software offers management software services to smaller firms, targeting a different market segment from large concerns such as Oracle and Ufida.
"We are used to the city, and we know the way it does business," said Xu Feng, Weway's vice general manager.
Work aside, there are plenty of choice spots for sightseeing and leisure activities within an hour's drive from Chengdu, including snowy mountains and Taoist temples with relics dating back 3,000 years, the park's Du said.
Chengdu, capital of China's southwestern Sichuan Province, is renowned as being the home of the panda, plus much more besides. Next year, the city will host the prestigious Fortune Global Forum, acknowledging Chengdu's growing reputation as a major business center. Much of this success can be attributed to the city's fast growth "can-do" attitude, together with its relaxed lifestyle. It's a combination proving every bit as appealing as Chengdu's cute black and white natives.
A senior manager at navigation device manufacturer Garmin's facility in Chengdu said he was very surprised when the Taiwan-based company began recruiting staff in the capital of Sichuan Province.
"The graduates here have strong hands-on and practical skills," said operations director Neil Yueh. "Their talent was comparable to that of some Taiwan postgraduates and even some of our own engineers."
Garmin, the world's top navigation device and service provider, chose Chengdu as the site of its sole research center on the Chinese mainland.
Besides Garmin, other overseas technology heavyweights in the city include Intel, Cisco, Dell and Foxconn.
Investors in the city cite its supply of well-educated talent, mature industry chains and comfortable lifestyle as principal reasons for doing business here.
At the end of 2011, more than 50 Fortune 500 IT firms had invested in Chengdu, earning the city a reputation as the biggest technology hub in China's inland western region.
Half of all global computer chips are now made in Chengdu, and about 20 million iPads were manufactured there last year.
Garmin, with more than 100 staff in Chengdu, is located in the Chengdu Tianfu Software Park, the hub of the city's software and services industry.
"It was a rural area when I came here several years ago," said park President Christine Du, who hails from the city of Dalian in northeastern China. "Now it's became a mature commercial and residential center with thousands of engineers."
Chengdu taxi drivers who looked puzzled if you asked to be taken to the park in 2008 now know every gate of every zone in the park, she added.
More than 400 firms have gathered in zones A-H, which generally comprise the heart of the national software industry. Companies there include IBM, SAP, NEC, Siemens, Philips, Tencent and Huawei.
In 2011, revenue from software concerns in Chengdu was 100.1 billion yuan (US$16 billion), or about 5 percent of the national total and 56 percent of the total in the western China region.
Employment in the software industry rose to 230,000 last year from 13,000 in 2001.
By 2015, industry revenue is expected to surpass 320 billion yuan and employment more than 400,000, according to Wang Rui, who is responsible for the software industry at the Chengdu Economic and Information Technology Commission.
"We are the No. 1 software city in west China," said Wang. "We are going to be a globally competitive software industry center by 2015."
Chengdu has some advantages in pursuing that goal: an educated workforce and relatively low labor costs.
The innovations that underpin development of the industry are hatched in more than 2,700 scientific research and development organizations, employing almost half a million researchers. Many come from Sichuan University and from the Chengdu-based University of Electronics and Technology of China.
The city has made great efforts to woo professionals from developed coastal areas and from the ranks of Chinese nationals returning from abroad. A special fund has been set up to provide funds to professionals with bright new ideas to develop.
Tianfu Software Park also provides training courses on everything from how to make smart business presentations to handling management stress.
Intel, under the slogan "Intel Inside Chengdu," has invested more than US$600 million in Chengdu since coming to the city in 1993. Between 55 percent and 60 percent of the company's computer chips are manufactured in the city, accounting for half of its global sales.
"Intel's investment has been the dawn of Chengdu's IT industry," said Wang. "It has resulted in a whole new industry chain."
In 2010, Dell announced it would spend more than US$100 billion in China over the next decade, including Chinese procurement and a new manufacturing plant in Chengdu.
"The strong Chengdu workforce and our new operations there will better position Dell for additional growth opportunities in western China," Amit Midha, now Dell Asia's president, said at the time.
Ge Jun, executive director of Intel China, said the surging need for microprocessors in western China, where Dell and Foxconn are now located, was a primary reason for Intel's commitment to Chengdu.
"With other global PC makers and ventures contemplating expansion in China's interior regions, Intel plans to ensure timely chip supplies with the Chengdu distribution center," Ge said in a recent interview.
Foxconn, the world's biggest contract manufacturer of consumer electronics, also has invested in Chengdu. Under contract with Apple, Foxconn made 13 million iPads in the first five months of this year.
Around all these giants, related industries and smaller companies have sprung up in areas such as management software, information security and digital media.
China Mobile, the world's biggest mobile carrier, has set up mobile music base in Chengdu.
Chengdu-based Weway Software offers management software services to smaller firms, targeting a different market segment from large concerns such as Oracle and Ufida.
"We are used to the city, and we know the way it does business," said Xu Feng, Weway's vice general manager.
Work aside, there are plenty of choice spots for sightseeing and leisure activities within an hour's drive from Chengdu, including snowy mountains and Taoist temples with relics dating back 3,000 years, the park's Du said.
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