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More Investment for IT Centre
The city's ambition to turn its Pudong Software Park (PSP) into a major software centre on the Pacific's western coast has been given a boost with a new deal. The Ministry of Information Industry (MII) and the municipal government reached a new co-operation agreement Thursday to expand the park.
The deal means the start of the second phase of construction funded by an investment package worth 300 million yuan (US$36.3 million), park officials said.
Due to be completed by the end of 2001, the second phase will offer 90,000 square metres of workshops for registered IT firms.
"The park will be further enhanced with the second-phase construction, which will help it achieve its goal of becoming a world-famous software centre by 2005," said Vice-Mayor Zhou Yupeng.
Approved by MII and the State Development Planning Commission, the park is China's top State-level software centre.
Since its opening in March, the park, located inside the Pudong Zhangjiang High-tech Zone, has become home to 34 IT firms and already has 30,000 square metres of workshops. And these firms are only a few of the park's registered 340-odd enterprises.
Foreign-funded businesses account for nearly 30 per cent of the total number of companies on the site, said Hu Hongliang, president of the park.
"We have fostered an environment favourable for software development, production and marketing through the first phase of construction," said Hu.
PSP also hopes to develop links with five cities in the United States, including New York and Chicago, with which it can undertake software development and export businesses.
The PSP-headed Software Offshore Business Union of Shanghai, a non-governmental association with more than 30 IT firms, was set up in March to boost software exports.
Prior to the completion of the construction of workshops on the current site in January, the output value of the firms registered in the park hit 250 million yuan (US$30.2 million) in 1999, sources with the park said.
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