After 24 years’ development, TEDA, one of thefirst State-level economic and technologicaldevelopment areas in the country, has growninto a beautiful modern area from a barrensaline-alkali land. TEDA has innumerable workshopsand is covered by parks and greenbeltsnow. It has become an important window forTianjin’s reform and opening-up campaign anda major drive force for economic development.

As an important part of China’s opening uppolicy and step-by-step opening-up strategy,TEDA was established in December of 1984with a total planned area of 33 square kilometers.Since 2003, TEDA initiated the developmentin western part with a planned area of 48square kilometers. In addition, there are alsothree satellite development areas in the neighborhood,namely Micro-electronics IndustrialArea, Yixian Scientific and Industrial Zone anda chemical industrial area.

TEDA has been striving to break the systemobstacle from the very beginning. TEDA attachesgreat importance to the building of softinvestment environment and brings forwardnew philosophies for improving investmentenvironment. TEDA also optimizes infrastructuresin the whole area and tries to attract newblood to the area.

Foreign-funded companies are now gatheringin TEDA. There are 4,450 foreign-fundedcompanies approved in TEDA now, with a totalinvestment of US$ 44.3 billion. In total, 64 multinationalcorporations listed in the Fortune500, have invested and set up 139 companies.

At present, foreign investment in TEDA concentratesin four leading industries, includingelectronics and communications industry representedby Motorola and Samsung, automobileand machinery manufacturing industry representedby FAW-Toyota and SEW, pharmaceuticalindustry represented by GlaxoSmithKline andNovonordisk, and food & beverage industry representedby Ting Hsin and Coca Cola.

Furthermore, the development potential ofsome emerging industries are coming out ofhorizon, such as energy conservation and environmentalprotection segment representedby Vestas and Dongqi Wind & Electricity Power,and space industry represented by the carriermanufacturing base. Modern service industriesincluding finance, logistics, exhibition, consultationand service contracting, are also growing.

The booming modern manufacturing industriesin TEDA stimulate the development of relevantindustries located in surrounding areas. Thereare more than 200 supporting enterprises forMotorola and Samsung in surrounding areas ofTEDA with annual output value totaling RMB20 billion yuan. This phenomenon proves theradiating effect of the TEDA.

Adjusting and optimizing the industrial structureduring recent years, TEDA begins to createa specialized environment suitable for modernservice industry and transformation of R&Dachievements. TEDA made great headway onthe ability of technology introduction and innovation.By the end of 2007, there had been11 incubators, 27 R&D institutes for technologicaltransformation, 35 corporation technologicalcenters, 45 multinational R&D centers and7 venture capitalists. The high-tech productoutput in TEDA accounted for 59 percent oftotal industrial output. The Pharmaceutical Valleywith Intellectual Property Rights that wasestablished in the first half of 2008 is the firstmodel industrialization base with intellectualproperty rights in the country.

TEDA, which is one of the first three nationaleco-industrial demonstration parks, highlyvalues ecological environment construction.TEDA has been the champion for investmentenvironment for ten years in succession, accordingto the Ministry of Commerce. TEDAleads the country in terms of the quality ofeconomic development, basically maintainingthe land input-output proportion of 1∶2∶3 (i.e.one-yuan input will attract two-US-dollar foreigninvestment and generate three-US-dollaroutput). Energy and water consumption for per10,000 yuan GDP are 187 kilogram standardcoal and 7.26 cubic meters of water. The resourceefficiency tops the country.

To better promote the development andopening-up of the Binhai New Area, TEDA hasofficially put forward the strategic propositionto build a new platform for China’s economydevelopment.