International Law

China's Upcoming Five Cities For Foreign Investment.

By Dan

A loyal reader emailed me a Fortune Magazine list this morning of "China's 5 Best New Cities for Business" and asked me what I thought of it.  

If one ignores the fact that none of the five cities is new, it is a great list. The list was developed as follows:

Fortune China recently conducted its fifth annual Emerging Business Cities survey, hearing from 1,278 Chinese senior managers who ranked 50 selected cities based on the overall business environment, the cost of doing business, the local talent pool, and the quality of life. They think the following sites have the potential to become the next generation of mega-cities. 

The following five Chinese cities made the cut, in the following order:

1. Suzhou
2. Qingdao
3. Shenzhen
4. Ningbo
5. Dalian

I was delighted to see Qingdao at number 2 because it is one of our favorite cities as co-blogger Steve Dickinson is based there and because so many of our food-related clients have set up their China operations there.  We are also big fans of Dalian and have done a considerable amount of work there related to the software/hardware and shipping industries.  Shenzhen and Suzhou should need no introduction because both cities have been manufacturing centers for a considerable time (particularly Shenzhen which was essentially China's first foreign manufacturing center for foreigners). I have been to Ningbo but once and my firm has done but a very few deals there so I am not terribly familiar with it, though I usually hear nothing but great things about it.   

These are all excellent cities for business, no doubt, but none of them are exactly undiscovered or "new" and none of them are cheap either.

What do you think?

Full post as published by China Law Blog on November 04, 2010 (boomark / email).