China's Optical Valley Issues 10 Preferences to Lure Foreign Investment
Zhou Fang
DATE:  Feb 28 2019
/ SOURCE:  yicai
China's Optical Valley Issues 10 Preferences to Lure Foreign Investment China's Optical Valley Issues 10 Preferences to Lure Foreign Investment

(Yicai Global) Feb. 27 -- Wuhan East Lake High-Tech Development Zone -- known as China's 'Optics Valley' -- today released 10 preferential policies to attract foreign investment, including encouraging business investment, rewarding companies that settle head offices there, supporting the development of service sectors and improving living conditions.  

The valley will reward new foreign investment in the form of additional registered capital of companies located in the zone, offering 2 percent, 4 percent and 6 percent of the new foreign investment to those firms in which it reaches USD3 million, USD10 million and USD30 million, respectively. It will also recompense companies which made fixed-asset investments with foreign capital. 

Founded in 1988, Wuhan East Lake High Technology Development Zone is China's largest production base for optical fiber cables and optoelectronic devices. It received its nickname after the government approved it as the national base for the optoelectronic industry in 2011.

The high-tech zone will offer rental allowances of up to CNY100,000 (USD14,950) each year for every foreign high-end talent, which refers to a foreign employee with an after-tax annual income of CNY300,000 who has worked in the valley for more than one year for a company that pays over CNY5 million (USD700,000) each year in taxes. 

The valley will also support international supermarket chains to settle there, offering a subsidy of CNY1 million to newly-opened stores with an annual revenue of CNY50 million (USD7.5 million). It will extend an additional CNY1 million to those among Deloitte's list of the world's top 100 retailers. 

"Prominent issues such as poor transport and backward living facilities will hamper the valley's international development and the formation of an international talent community," noted Prof. Chen Bo, director of the research center for the pilot free trade zone at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, adding the new policy's support for foreign retailers shows the valley has cited fixing the weakness of living facilities as one of its key missions. 

To date, 804 companies funded by foreign investors and those from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan have settled there, including 93 among the Fortune Global 500.
Editor: Ben Armour

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Keywords:   Optics Valley,Wuhan