More than a decade ago, Shaanxi was known for a queer juxtaposition of powerful resources in research, education and backward economy. Today, the "Samsung effect", which represents technological sophistication, gigantic investment and the driving force of industry, has testified to a combination of advantageous resources in this province of western China.
A fusion of resources
When the world economy remains sluggish and the Chinese economy slows down, the gigantic input of Samsung Electronics in Shaanxi demonstrated not only the attractive market size here but the enhancement in local capability to accommodate sophisticated industrial projects as a result of China's west development strategy. The project is a plant of NAND chips, a product widely used in smart cell phones and tablet PCs, while China has become the world's largest producer and consumer of these IT products, taking up around 40% of the world total.
Why a project coming for China market opportunities chose to settle in Xi'an, the provincial capital of Shaanxi? As Dr. Oh-Hyun Kwon, CEO and vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, put it, Xi'an is a central city of western China, which has many major customers of Samsung around it and its regional advantage enables Samsung to respond to customer needs quickly and efficiently.
Xi'an's advantage in industrial growth is also stressed. Kim Yong-kwan, senior vice-president of Samsung Electronics, said, "Xi'an is an important education base of China, which produces nearly 20,000 IT masters and Ph.Ds every year, a fact very conducive to IT enterprises. The city also has steady supply of water, electricity and natural gas which, plus convenient transportation, serves a base for chip industry. "
"The research and education resources played an important role in luring the Samsung project in, which again broke the embarrassing 'Shaanxi paradox"', said Zhao Hongzhuan, director of the administrative committee of Xi'an High-Tech Industries Development Zone (XHTZ).
Shaanxi is a big province of China in terms of education resources, for it is home to more than 80 higher learning institutions, nearly 1,000 research institutions and more than 1 million researchers and technicians, but its economic aggregate used to rank behind many other provinces, striking a sharp contrast which was named "Shaanxi paradox".
"Without the support of energy supply, transportation, biology and government service, education resources cannot change into economic advantages by themselves," said Gu Mengbin, an expert on financial investment with Shaanxi Academy of Social Sciences, "after more than a decade of western development, Shaanxi has successfully ‘fused' its resource advantages to accommodate industrial growth."
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