Japanese auto parts industry "combines" to Foshan

The reporter learned from the 2004 China Foshan (Japan) Investment Promotion Conference that it was held that 17 of the world’s top 500 corporate investment projects have settled in Foshan, Guangdong, with a total investment of US$307 million. The entire investment promotion conference signed a total of 53 projects, with a total investment of 615 million US dollars. The auto parts industry has become one of the biggest highlights of this promotion, with 21 auto parts projects contracted at the same time, with a total investment of 324 million US dollars. It is understood that the investment promotion conference has introduced a number of large-scale and super-large-scale investment projects, of which 28 projects exceed 10 million US dollars, with a total investment of 542 million US dollars, accounting for 88% of the total investment. U.S. and Japan’s Toshiba Carrier and Virgin Water Co., Ltd. jointly invested USD 48.2 million to establish Guangdong Midea Refrigeration Preparation Co., Ltd., Japan’s Toyoda Gosei, Toyota Tsusho, and Taiwan’s Fung Yuk Co., Ltd. jointly invested US$29 million to establish Toyoda Gosei (Foshan) Automotive Parts Limited the company. According to Liang Shaolu, Mayor of Foshan City, as the third largest city in Guangdong Province, the GDP of Foshan last year reached 138.139 billion yuan, an increase of 16.1% year-on-year. It is an important production base for household appliances, digital optics, new materials, and biomedical industries in China. At present, more than 6,000 foreign companies have settled in Foshan, accumulatively utilizing 14 billion U.S. dollars in foreign investment. The investment projects of this promotion meeting are mainly concentrated in the three major industries of auto parts, household appliances, and digital optics, and the industrial agglomeration effect is very obvious. (Yao Binhua, Zhu Wenfeng, Nan Cebing) “South China News” (October 14, 2004, first edition)