Model Cities

Wuhan

Background

Profile:

Wuhan is situated in the middle of Hubei Province of China, East Longitude 113°41′-115°05′, North Latitude 29°58′-31°22′.the east of Jianghan Plain, and the intersection of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and Hanshui River. The Yangtze River and Hanshui River divide Wuhan into three parts: Hankou, Hanyang and Wuchang, which are generally known as Wuhan's Three Towns.

Wuhan belongs to subtropical humid monsoon climate. There are sufficient rainfall and sunshine as well as four distinct seasons. Climate here is pleasant generally. In recent thirty years, the average annual rainfall is 1269mm, mainly from June to August; annual temperature is 15.8℃-17.5℃, annual frost free period lasts 211 to 272 days and annual sunlight duration is 1810 to 2100 hours.

Wuhan occupies a land of 8494.41km2, most of which is plain and decorated with hills and a great number of lakes and pools. Wuhan's climate is a subtropical monsoon one with abundant rainfall and distinctive four seasons. It has a population of 7,811,900 by the end of 2003.

Wuhan possesses strong economic and regional advantages. It connects the east with the west, channels the north to the south, and links rivers with seas by means of its developed water, land and air traffic. From Wuhan you may reach some foreign countries such as Japan and ROK. Some of China's metropolises such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, and Xi'an are all within a circle around the center of Wuhan with the radius of 1000km. Wuhan is the important strategic supporting point of Central China.

Wuhan is a famous historical and cultural city in China with a history of 3500 years. Its three towns take advantage of the intersection of the Yangtze River and Hanshui River, and Hankou has been growing up swiftly. In 1861, Hankou was opened to trade with foreign powers. In 1927, National Government announced that Hankou, Wuchang and Hanyang were integrated to Jingzhao Region and named Wuhan, whose administrative system was first unified. Wuhan was liberated on May 16, 1949, and was the city directly governed by the Central Government by June 1954, afterwards, governed by Hubei Provincial Government. In Dec. 1986, the State Council promulgated that Wuhan was a famous historical and cultural city in China. In 1992, Wuhan was approved to be city open to the outside world.


Economic Background

Wuhan is one of the cities with the most competitive force for domestic trade in China. Wuhan, close next to Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou in its volume of retail, is among the top list of China's metropolises. Wuhan Department Store, Zhongshang Company, Hanyang Department Store, and Central Department Store enjoy highest reputation and are Wuhan's four major commercial enterprises and listed companies. Hanzhengjie Small Commodities Market has been prosperous for hundreds of years and enjoys a worldwide reputation. In recent years, some world famous commercial giants such as Walmart, Metro, and Carrefour all set up branches in Wuhan, and bring about more prosperity and stronger force of radiation.

Wuhan is the scientific and educational center in Central China, with 35 higher educational institutions such as Wuhan University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology, which cover all the fields of science and technology and employ elites and explorers in these fields. Wuhan has formed a comprehensive scientific and educational strength ranking the third in China with its main force: three national development zones and four scientific and technologic development parks as well as numerous enterprise incubators, over 350 research institutes, 1470 hi-tech enterprises, and over 400,000 experts and technicians.


Wuhan Service Outsourcing Industry Development

Purpose:

Wuhan aims to become China's outsourcing delivery center, which means Wuhan shall open to the developed countries like Europe, US, Japan and South Korea to undertake orders from domestic first-class cities and focus its development on rear operations like order acceptance to make sure most service outsourcing businesses are delivered in Wuhan, thus to achieve the goal of building Wuhan into a major service outsourcing delivery center and service outsourcing talent cultivation base by the end of the Eleventh Five-year Plan period. The specific development objectives include:

1. By 2010, the total revenue of service outsourcing business shall reach RMB 50 billion, in which the export of service outsourcing shall reach US$ 500 million.

2. By 2010, Wuhan shall train 80,000 university graduates and create 100,000 new employment opportunities in the service outsourcing industry.

3. By 2010, Wuhan shall attract 80,000 university graduates to work in this industry and make the total service outsourcing personnel to exceed 100,000. It shall attract 800 domestic and overseas companies to set up service outsourcing enterprises there, in which 100 enterprises shall acquire CMM13/CMM3 and above and 20 enterprises shall have CMM15/CMM5 certification.

4. Foster two to four service outsourcing enterprises with over 5,000 employees and ten enterprises with over 1,000 employees respectively.


Political Support:

Wuhan has incorporated the accelerated development of service outsourcing industry into its "Eleventh Five-year Plan". To provide macroeconomic guide for the industry, Wuhan has issued various policies and suggestions for promoting the service outsourcing industry, including Several Policies for Encouraging the Development of Service Outsourcing Industry, Measures for the Management of Science & Technology Enterprise Hatcher of Wuhan, Several Opinions of the Provincial Government on Accelerating the Development of Software Industry, Opinions of Municipal Government on Further Encouraging the Development of Software Industry and Integrated Circuit Industry, Opinions on the Implementation of Preferential Policies to Accelerate Software Industry Development, Notice of Provincial Government on Issuing Several Policies for Promoting the Development of Software Industry and Integrated Circuit Industry, Notice of the Administrative Office of Municipal Government on Accelerating the Construction and Development of High & New-tech Innovation Service Center, and Measures for the Implementation of Financial and Tax Policies Related to "Several Opinions of CPC Wuhan Committee and Wuhan Municipal Government on Further Supporting the Development of High & New-tech Industry. Through these policies and regulations, Wuhan has formed a local policy system for supporting the development of service outsourcing industry composed of relevant preferential policies on land, taxation, fund, talent cultivation and attraction, and intellectual property protection as well as detailed implementation measures.

Specific preferential policies include: 1. Set up special supporting fund for the service outsourcing industry, allocating RMB 100 million each year for supporting service outsourcing enterprises to carry out qualification certification, international market exploration, and personnel training. Enterprises can receive RMB 100,000 as an award for passing software outsourcing certification, and RMB 0.1 from government for every US$ 1 of the order. 2. Set up special fund for big projects invitation to provide land subsidy for inviting famous enterprises and promising projects. 3. Issue preferential policies for service outsourcing personnel training and attraction, which provides maximum 15% reimbursement of the training fee for fresh undergraduate students joining the service outsourcing industry, and maximum 50% of reimbursement of the training fee for pre-occupation training of new employees of service outsourcing enterprises. 4. Provide preferential land price and lease rental for the office buildings of headquarters and R&D centers of famous service outsourcing enterprises in the service park.

Devott Publications
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