Ding Yongjun (center right) talks with representatives from Panac Co, a film products enterprise which invested its branch plant in SND in 2003. [Photo/WeChat account: snd-szgxqfb]
After a negative nucleic acid test result and a 14-day quarantine at home, Ding Yongjun, director of Suzhou New District's (SND) office in Japan, recently restarted his business visits to Japanese enterprises.
His first stop was Panac Co, a film products enterprise which invested in a branch plant in SND in 2003. The two sides exchanged ideas on Panac's current situation in Suzhou, what SND can do to help Panac manage plant issues, and the company's plans and new research directions.
Ding's explanation of SND's advantages in policies, talent, land and plant enticed the Japanese investor which is planning to relocate projects in other Chinese cities and in Southeast Asian countries to SND and expand the scale of production with the aim of building SND into its regional headquarters.
Ding and his team will pay more visits in the near future to enterprises which have carried out business in SND such as Panasonic, Canon, Kawasaki, NGK, Fujifilm and JDI Electronics, getting to know their needs in increasing investment, expanding production, bringing in new production lines and upgrading technology.
Japanese companies can also get up-to-date business information via SND's official Japanese website, where details of preferential policies, investment platforms, technological strength and infrastructure are all available.
Japanese investments in Suzhou New District
SND is now home to 589 Japanese enterprises with over $20 billion in total investment. All the enterprises have now resumed operations after closing during the COVID-19 outbreak, even registering 390 percent year-on-year growth in actual investment from January to June this year.
China-Japan Innovation Valley (Suzhou), with an investment of 5 billion yuan ($731.5 million), will consist of a technological exchange platform, an industrial park for intelligent manufacturing, and a regional headquarters cluster for Japanese companies.
The Chinese headquarters of Seiren Automobiles and Nidec Corporation, as well as Panasonic Semiconductors' in-vehicle camera research center have been established in SND.
JDI Electronics, Kawasaki Precision Machinery, Panasonic Electronics, and Yokohama Tires are investing more funds in technical reform and manufacturing new products.
