Longyan city attractive destination for foreign and domestic investors

After decades of growth, Longyan city in the west of Fujian has developed into an increasingly attractive destination for investors from home and abroad.

According to local statistics, last year domestic and international investors put money into a total of 285 projects in Longyan, with combined investment of 91.5 billion yuan ($13.08 billion).

The city's officials have attributed Longyan's appeal to investors to its higher quality of industrial growth, improvements on the business and on the environmental fronts and fast development of transport facilities, as well as its traditional links with a great number of overseas Chinese.

Longyan is regarded as the ancestral home of millions of Hakka people, as the city was the first region to receive immigrants from the northern and central parts of China during the war-stricken Western Jin Dynasty (265-316).

Historical documents also show that the Hakkas branched out from Longyan to Guangdong, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao and later to overseas regions.

Local statistics show that more than 1.2 million Hakka people in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao and overseas have close family links in Longyan. Many of them are successful businesspeople who are willing to invest or to do business in Longyan.

The city has rich natural resources to support its industrial development as it is home to about 70 percent of the total mineral reserves in Fujian.

The city's good environment and its unique culture as a cradle of Chinese revolution and as the ancestral home of Hakkas make it an attractive destination for tourists and investors in the tourism industry.

About 79 percent of the city's land is covered by forests, a rate ranking it first in Fujian province. This means that Longyan is an ideal place to develop eco-toursim.

The city is also known to international tourists for the local tulou, or giant communal homes made of earth, which are included in the UNESCO list of World Cultural Heritage sites.

Longyan is also a major industrial base in Fujian for non-ferrous metals, rare earth, new materials and modern farming, which are showing great potential for investment.

The city has a national high-tech zone, a national economic development zone and eight provincial-level high-tech and economic development zones, which are major destinations for investment.

The Longyan Economic Development Zone, for instance, is home to more than 600 enterprises, including eight companies listed on domestic and overseas stock exchanges. Adding to Longyan's appeal is its transport system.

The city is currently linked with the rest of the country through seven expressways and seven railways including three high-speed lines and one airport.

Every county in Longyan is connected with expressways.