Fujian Province, also known as "Min", is along China's south-eastern coast. It is separated from Taiwan only by the narrow Taiwan Straits. Since China's reform and opening-up drive was initiated over twenty years ago, Fujian witnessed rapid economic development. The province now ranks 11th in terms of overall economic strength. Fujian has gone from handwork and low value added light industries such as foodstuff, shoemaking, and handicrafts to the 3 leading industries of machinery, petrochemicals, and ICT. Fujian has particularly strong economic ties with Taiwan with many Taiwanese firms invested in Fujian. Fujian also becomes a focal point when cross-straits tensions rise.

Coastal province in full change, Fujian intends to develop its privileged geographical situation which halfway places it between Shanghai and Canton. Encouraged by the dynamism of the Special Economic Zone of Xiamen and by the growth of its harbor activities, the provincial authorities arrived, in a few years only, to make of Fujian the fourth exporting area of China and a place for Foreign Direct Investments, in particular with Xiamen, by a boom of the foreign companies, primarily of Asian origin.

The presence of Taiwanese firms - relayed these last years by Japanese investments and south Korean (direct air links to Fuzhou and Xiamen) - supported the emergence of poles of excellence (high technologies, shoes, clothing, articles of sport, light industries...). Fujian can be also prevailed to be the hinged plate market and also of natural stone in China.

New Industries:

Petrochemical:

There is a group of large and medium scale petrochemical projects in Fujian Province. They are high technical, widely industry-related, and capital intensive.

In Quanzhou City, there is an oil refining and chemical integrated project with crude oil processing of 4,000,000 tons per year. The project is based in Quangang District, which is one of the six major State-planned petrochemical bases.

In Xiamen City, Haicang Development Zone has formed a mid and lower-stream industrial system relying mainly on producing chemical fibber raw materials and fibber, plastics processing, and rubber tire products.

The Fujian Petrochemical-Exxon Mobile-Aramco petrochemical integration project won State approval in 2002. The project will be capable of producing 800,000 tons of ethylene annually and will also increase the oil refining capacity from 4 million tons to 12 million tons per year. The joint venture has a total investment of more than USD 3 billion. Fujian has established an industrial chain and an overall industrial scheme in petrochemical sector.

Electronic:

Fujian has a wide range of assortments and products in electronics and information sector. Our electronic products include: communications and navigation, digital audio-visual equipments, computer and peripheral units, system integration and software, integrated circuit, electronic components, and electronic application products.

A complete industrial system including talent cultivation, scientific research, product development, production, management, sales and service has been established.

In 2002, the total industrial output value in this sector generated by costal cities such as Fuzhou and Xiamen made up 98.7% of the province's total. Together with the Changjiang (Yangtze River) Delta, the Zhujiang (Pearl River) Delta and the Bohai Rim, an internationally competitive electronics & information-clustering region is established.

The IT industrial chain is composed with a few leading companies such as AOC Electronics, Dell and Chunghwa Picture Tubes. AOC occupies the first place in the country in producing monitors; Dell is ranked the fourth in producing computer; and Chunghwa Picture Tubes produces 19.6 million display-tubes annually.

Machinery:

In 2002, the production output value of the mechanical industry occupies the third place among all sectors in the province, and the growth rate is ranked the second. Key developing products include: automobile, ship, engineering machineries, electric machineries & equipments, agricultural machineries and others such as joint bearing, tire-shaping sulfur ate machine, electric dust remover and water gauge.

Major exported mechanical products in the year of 2002 include: USD 179 million worth of ships; USD 135 million worth of valves; USD 102 million worth of automobiles and spare parts; USD 101 million worth of electric motors and generators; USD 88.85 million worth of power transmission &transformation equipments and protecting devices; USD 60 million worth of batteries and storage batteries; USD 51.31 million worth of containers; and USD 48.31 million worth of electric wires and cables.

In 2002, Taikoo (Xiamen) Aircraft Engineering Co. Ltd. generated USD 308 million of foreign exchange earnings in civilian plane maintenance and plane modification.

Traditional Industries:

Fujian has development advantages in traditional industries such as shoe making, textile and garments, handicrafts, gift, toy and agriculture. By applying high technologies and advanced application technologies, we continuingly increase products' technical components, improve products' quality level and increase their market shares.

Textile:

The textile industry consists of many types of business operations in the fields of chemical fiber, cotton textile, printing and dyeing, knitting, fabrics for industrial use, fabric products, garments, textile machineries and equipments.

With industrial restructuring, the non-State-owned textile enterprises including privately owned, joint ventures, wholly foreign owned and co-operation enterprises are developing rapidly and have become the main force in Fujian's textile industry. Famous large and medium scale local textile companies include: Xianglu fibers, Heshun chemical fiber, Kartex textile, Hualun printing & dyeing, Fengzhu dyeing & finishing, Hai-tian knitting & textile, Seven garments, K-boxing garments, Jiumuwang garments, Septwolves garments. Septwolves, Fuguiniao, and SBS own nationally famous trademarks.

Light Industry:

Light industry in Fujian is formed of 22 main categories and 44 sectors including: papermaking, leather, plastics, foodstuff (can, candy, dairy products, food additives, fermented products, wine making, non-alcohol drinks, frozen food), salt making, sugar making, pen making, printing and packaging, furniture, toy, daily use mechanicals (bicycle, watch, sewing machine), daily use silicates (ceramics, glass, thermos, enamel products), electric light, daily use chemicals (cosmetics, battery, cleansing products, essence & spices, match, light-sensitive materials), hardware, arts & crafts, light industrial machineries.

In 2002, the total industrial output value of Fujian's light industry occupied the 6th place in the country. Production output of newsprint, clock and watch were ranked the top in China; furniture the 2nd; can, leather, arts and crafts the 3rd; beer producing the 8th; roasted eel the 1st; and candy making the 4th.

Food-processing and agriculture:

Agricultural industrialization is undergoing fast development. In 2002, the gross output of fruits reached 4,250,000 tons and was ranked among the top in the country. Tea is Fujian's local specialty and famous traditional product. Its gross output, export quantum and plantation area occupy the first, second and third place in the country respectively. TieGuanYin tea of Anxi, Yan tea of Wuyi and Jasmine tea are all world famous. Edible fungus is another strong item in Fujian. Its production output, output value and foreign exchange earning all occupy the first place in the country in more than ten consecutive years.

Fujian has also established production bases for producing ten major types of agricultural products for exports, for example, high-quality fruits. Foreign exchange earnings generated from exporting of agricultural products ranked among the top in China.

The ratio of the three industries (the primary, secondary and tertiary industries) is improved and approaching rational. In 2002, the industrial added value of these three industries occupied 14.2%, 46.1%, and 39.7% of the GDP.

Animal husbandry has remained its growth for 23 years in succession. Fuzhou and Zhangzhou took the lead in establishing the Cross-Straits Agricultural Cooperation Experimental Regions in 1997. A full range of agricultural cooperation between Fujian and Taiwan was facilitated and hence the development of export-oriented agriculture was quickened.