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Shenzhen As China’s Most Competitive City. It Just Might Be….
Is this China’s best city for business?
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences just named Shenzhen as China’s most competitive city. Though I am immediately dubious of these sorts of rankings (especially those from the Chinese Government), this one may actually be valid.
Five years ago, my law firm’s clients would nearly always set up their China operations in either Shanghai or Beijing. Beijing if they were in media or entertainment or software and Shanghai if they were in consumer goods or finance or pretty much everything else. Though we would occasionally get strays who would set up in Qingdao or Dalian because they were in the fishing or shipping industry or Xiamen or Xi’an because they liked those cities or knew someone there, or Shenzhen because they knew the city from having gone there so many times to oversee their product manufacturing outsourcing, certainly our bigger and more sophisticated clients were choosing Beijing or Shanghai.
But in the last few years, many of our China WFOE formation clients are requesting that we set them up in Shenzhen. These clients are giving us the following explanations for choosing Shenzhen:
1. It’s close to Hong Kong but cheaper.
2. It’s become the electronics hardware center for China, and not just for manufacturing, but for design and engineering.
3. It may not be as exciting as Shanghai or Beijing, but it’s the best place for business.
4. It is a nice place with a number of good international schools.
5. It is a lot less expensive than Shanghai or Beijing.
Shenzhen’s “focus on innovation” led to it edging out Hong Kong this year, which according to the Academy “relied too much on its core industries of finance, shipping, tourism and professional services ….. [and] had failed to offer enough support for organizations working in innovation and technology and other small but emerging industries.”
The study is based on “multiple areas including business environment, municipal harmony, efficiency, suitability for living and sustainability.” I must confess that I am not sure exactly how to objectively measure any of these things, or even whether such measurements are possible.
Hong Kong was ranked second, Shanghai third, Taipei fourth and Guangzhou fifth.
Did Shenzhen deserve this accolade?
For more on where to locate your business in China and Asia, check out the following:
- Where To Locate Your Business In China Or Asia
- Where To Locate Your China Company
- Where To Locate Your China Business. Nike? Starbucks? Intel?
- Where To Locate Your Business In China? Think Electricity.
- Where To Locate In China. Put Pollution On Your List.
- Where To Locate In China? Or Why Weifang Isn’t Suzhou.
- China Factories Moving In Droves To Cambodia/Vietnam/Myanmar/Malaysia. NOT.
- China Business: Location, Location, Location
The post Shenzhen As China’s Most Competitive City. It Just Might Be…. appeared first on China Law Blog.
We will be discussing the practical aspects of Chinese law and how it impacts business there. We will be telling you what works and what does not and what you as a businessperson can do to use the law to your advantage. Our aim is to assist businesses already in China or planning to go into China, not to break new ground in legal theory or policy.
Source: http://www.chinalawblog.com/2015/06/shenzhen-as-chinas-most-competitive-city-it-just-might-be.html
