Dongguan: Rising Star of Global IT Industry

Purchasers from all over the world made orders worth over 700 million U.S. dollars in a small city in south China before they called an end to a computer fair.

The 3C Expo 2000 -- Computer, Communications and Consumer Electronic Products was closed Wednesday in Dongguan City, neighboring Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

More than 3,000 overseas purchasers, including Microsoft, IBM and Dell, from over 50 countries and regions, signed 216 contracts within six days with a contracted volume of 1.182 billion U.S. dollars. Of this amount, 715 million U.S. dollars will be used to buy computer accessories and products alike produced by Dongguan.

The international exposition, the first ever held by Dongguan, attracted 300,000 visitors to the southern city, which has become the world's largest producer of computer accessories.

"No matter where you place an order, they are all made in Dongguan," said H. D. Yeh from Primax Holding Co., the second largest supplier of scanner and mouse in the world.

Dongguan hosted a similar exposition last year that was designed to increase awareness of local residents of the city's progress in 3C.

The city-level exposition was approved this year by the Ministry of Science and Technology to become an international exposition at an national level. Some 500 giants of the field came to this year's event, 40 percent of which were from overseas.

Dongguan, with an area of over 2,000 square kilometers, is now home to 2,800 3C businesses, with the figure growing by several hundred each year.

Dongguan's 3C products have owned a large share of the international market. It produces 40 percent of the world's hard disk heads, cases and semis. Almost one out of every three disk drivers, one out of every five scanners and mini-motors are made in Dongguan.

By simply strolling around the city, a purchaser can easily accumulate at least 95 percent of the installation kit required for a complete computer.

An IBM senior official said that Dongguan has become the purchase base of world's computer giants. If a traffic jam occurs between Dongguan and Hong Kong, he jokingly added, 70 percent of the computer assembly businesses around the world will not operate normally due to a supply shortage.

China's computer giants, such as Legend and Founder, both established factories to raise the notability of China's made-in-Dongguan products.

The Dongguan production base of Founder manufactures three million computers annually.

Nokia from Finland increased its investment by 20 million U.S. dollars this year to build its second production line in Dongguan, making the Chinese city Nokia's largest producer of mobile phones in the world. The output value is expected to surpass one billion U.S. dollars this year.

The most attractive aspect of Dongguan is that it is the largest producer of computer accessories in the world, said a Nokia official.

He said that Nokia plans to invest another 500 million U.S. dollars in Dongguan, which is considered the most ideal place for IT investment.

Mico Chung, chairman of NOVA International Holding Co., which undertook the organization of the exposition, said that the 3C Expo 2000 has potential to be in the world's four largest expo's following COMPEX of the United States, CEBIT of Germany and COMPUTEX of Taipei City of China.

"What Dongguan lacks is celebrity," he said, "and the exposition is designed to forge a sound image of Dongguan in the world."

The world's computer processing and manufacturing base has been shifted from Taiwan Province to south China with Dongguan as the core. Business people from Taiwan even bring their management and customers to Dongguan, Chung said.

Dongguan is like a strong magnet, attracting 20 prestigious Chinese universities, such as Qinghua and Beijing Universities, to jointly build a scien-tech center here.

Major General Cao Bingjin, president of the National Defense Science and Technology University, believed that Dongguan will rapidly turn more laboratory achievements into competitive products with help from these universities.



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