China's Dalian looks to cooperation with Silicon Valley

The northeastern Chinese city of Dalian is looking to explore high-tech development and investment opportunities through exchanges with Silicon Valley.

A delegation, headed by Xia Deren, chairman of the People's Political Consultative Conference of Liaoning Province, attended the Liaoning (Dalian) - Silicon Valley High-Tech Industrial Cooperation Symposium on Nov 2 in Santa Clara, California.

The conference, organized by the Liaoning provincial government, attracted local high-tech and financial experts to share their opinions on the latest technology and investment trend in Silicon Valley.

Xia told the conference that Liaoning has the largest provincial economy of Northeast China and Silicon Valley is the world's innovation hub. He said he hoped the two sides can strengthen exchanges and cooperation in high-tech and investment.

The leading industries in Liaoning include petrochemicals, metallurgy, electronics, telecommunications and machinery.

During the conference, a promotional film of Dalian was shown to the audience. A financial, shipping and logistics center in Northeast Asia, Dalian achieved gross domestic product of 736.3 billion yuan ($106.9 billion) in 2017, ranking the 21st in China.

The Dalian Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone, established in 1991, is among the first approved state-level high-tech zones in China. Covering an area of 35.6 square kilometers, it focuses on such industries as electronic information, bio-pharmaceuticals and new materials, according to the materials handed out by the organizer at the event.

Chee Chyuan Liong, vice president of Intel Corporation and the general manager of Intel Semiconductor (Dalian) Co Ltd, shared his experience with the audience of operating the fabrication plant in the city.

Intel's investment in the Dalian plant is bigger than any other site, which shows the company's continued confidence in the city, said Liong. He also said the plant has had "200 percent more employees" in the past few years.

Liong admitted that running such a big fab is not an easy job but he received good support from the local government, which "makes sure we receive what we need," such as power supply and high-quality water.

"It's really important to have forums such as this at Shenzhen Bay Center, which helps facilitate dialogues and facilitate the formation of the partnerships and investments," said Scott Armanini, a Silicon Valley-based venture capitalist.

He said the level of cooperation between Silicon Valley and China has continued to be strong and "is only getting stronger."

"The building of Shenzhen Bay Center is a perfect example of ways to create an environment which embraces different points of view and different philosophies, and for folks to get together to share ideas," said Armanini.