Industry Parks in China Aim at a Better Future Through Innovation

    BEIJING, May 11 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- CCID Consulting, China's leading
research, consulting and IT outsourcing service provider, and the first
Chinese consulting firm listed in Hong Kong, recently pointed out that
industry parks of today should become more internationally-focused, and
transformed from places of industrial clustering to ones of service
industry clustering. "Industry parks" in China refer to regions of industry
concentration, such as economic and technological development zones,
cutting- edge technology industry development zones, export processing
zones and bonded areas. These parks mainly consist of operating entities
like economic and technological development zones, and cutting-edge
technology industry development zones.
   From industrial clustering to service industry clustering
   CCID Consulting comments that industry parks should speed up
transformation from a place of industrial clustering to one of service
industry clustering to push forward their role in driving and supporting
the changing industrial development in cities and even surrounding regions.
There are two reasons for this. Firstly, industry clustering in certain
areas takes up a large portion of agricultural land, which puts it in
opposition to the State's land policy. Secondly, the positioning towards
service industry clustering allows industry parks to attain more room for
growth, which enables them to develop naturally, and even give greater play
to their own role in driving forward economic growth in surrounding
regions.
   Industry parks' focus on industrial clustering is an important reason
for their continuous land expansion. As they once adopted a development
route of industrial clustering, these industry parks were bound to suffer
from a lack of land space. Continuous land expansion has been a necessity
for them as they have failed to upgrade their strategic thinking to become
more service industry-oriented. CCID Consulting believes that industry
parks have tried to become the powerhouse and radiator for overall
industrial growth through providing a more suitable investment environment
and attracting key institutions in the industrial clustering process. They
do not complete industrial clustering on their own.
   The breakthrough for improving the role of industry parks lies in a
change from an industrial clustering-oriented transformation towards a
service industry clustering-oriented transformation. Once they become a
gathering place of R&D, incubation, technology exchange, logistics transfer
and professional outsourcing, which are peripheral to the service industry,
industry parks will not only greatly improve their own economic
performances but also play a considerable role in promoting social and
economic development in the peripheral industries. Industry parks' leverage
role in cities is thus an important indicator for measuring their strategic
role.
   From a domestic view to a world view
   One important direction for industry parks to make strategic
transformations in the future is to adopt a global mindset when adjusting
their industrial structure and positioning their development. In their
future development, industry parks should change from a focus on expansion
of scale to pooling their advantageous forces to develop leading industries
and improve their industrial competitiveness. They should step up efforts
to integrate the "industry park" into the international industrial
specialization system. They should keep pace with international
technological developments. For example, Yiwu in Zhejiang Province has
brought its small commodity wholesale to the world market through a
specialized regional market. This is the growth benefit which has been
brought about by the city's international positioning.
   Firstly, based on a better understanding of the global development
trend, industry parks need to focus on developing industries with
competitive advantages, make full use of their comparative advantages in
the international division of work, combine their industrial structural
planning with the world industrial development trend, and formulate new
industrial strategies plans and business promotion schemes. Eventually,
such plans could help to improve their overall regional competitiveness. A
global orientation does not exclude positioning towards local services. On
the contrary, it can speed up local social and economic development and
contribute to the improvement of national competitiveness.
   Secondly, CCID Consulting suggests that industry parks should achieve a
chain layout of ''international core enterprise-international supplementary
enterprise-international clustering effect''. They should formulate
business promotion plans with an international vision, take up those
hi-tech and high value-added production links in an industry and claim
certain higher industrial and technological high ground based on their
overall strength and comparative advantages. The formative mechanisms of
international industrial specialization are changing from self-promoted
specialization in the market to the operational specialization by
enterprises (mainly multinational companies) and organizational
specialization by members of regional industrial groups. Industry parks
therefore need to implement a number of supplementary projects for key
international industries and key enterprises, and improve their ability to
offer supplementary services to attract specific international industries.
   Change from extensive management to the refined services model
   The administrative committees of industry parks should hand over
operational responsibilities of more intermediary services incubation
investment and financing to market institutions. This will allow them to
achieve a more ''refined'' management and overall service. Portal website-
based services platforms will become the main development direction for IT
applications in industry parks. Due to the lack of smooth and effective
channels of information communication between industry parks and their
residential enterprises, there is information asymmetry between them. The
management and services which industry parks provide cannot meet
enterprises' needs. Industry parks cannot get first-hand information about
enterprises either. Through refined management and shared services
platforms, industry parks and their residential enterprises can maintain
real time information communication, engage in full information exchanges
and sharing, and optimize the management of the information chain. Through
receiving the latest enterprise information, industry parks can offer
enterprises services specially tailored to them.
   For more, please refer to
http://www.ccidconsulting.com/upload_fr/07050902.jpg .
   To sum up, China needs to give up many of the outdated and unsuitable
ideas that still exist in its development strategies and plans for industry
parks. These include static situational judgment, narrow regional interests
and coarse division of industries. Such factors fundamentally prevent
industry parks from playing their due role. CCID Consulting comments that
industry parks' strategic breakthroughs and transformation have been
growingly concentrated on three major aspects, namely transformation of
industry clustering to services industry clustering, transformation of
extensive management to refined services, and transformation of domestic
positioning to international positioning. Industry parks need to draw
implications from these for their future development road and take more
effective actions.
   About CCID Consulting
   CCID Consulting Co., Ltd. (also known as CCID Consulting), the first
Chinese consulting firm listed in the Growth Enterprise Market of the Stock
Exchange (GEM) of Hong Kong (stock code: HK08235), is a direct affiliate of
the China Center for Information Industry Development (hereinafter known as
CCID Group). Headquartered in Beijing, CCID Consulting has so far set up
branch offices in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Harbin, with over 300
professional consultants and industry experts. The Company's business scope
has covered over 200 large- and medium-sized cities in China. Apart from
home market development, CCID Consulting is establishing international
cooperation links across the United States, the Asia-Pacific region and
Europe, by setting up agents in the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Australia,
Singapore, Italy and Russia, with the aim of going global.
   Based on four major competitive areas of powerful data channels,
industrial resources, intense knowledge and deep understanding of
information technology, CCID Consulting provides customers with consulting,
research and IT outsourcing services covering strategy planning, IT
application, marketing strategy, human resources and information technology
outsourcing. Our customers range from industrial users in IT,
telecommunications, energy, finance, automobile, to government departments
at all levels and diversified industrial parks.