Auto Valley's automobile manufacturing FDI surges

The 2022 Conference on Overseas Chinese Pioneering and Developing in China (COCPDC) took place on Nov 15 in the Optics Valley Chinese Sci-tech City of the East Lake High-tech Development Zone.

A new energy vehicle (NEV) and smart manufacturing session will be held on Nov 17 as a part of the conference. The session was reportedly designed for the Wuhan Economic & Technological Development Zone (WEDZ), which will sign an intelligent connected research center project agreement with Megatronix (Beijing) Technology Co on the day.

Relying on the research center, the firm will operate businesses engaged in the sale, customer support, and R&D of intelligent cockpit platforms and other intelligent automotive products.

An official from the zone's business promotion bureau said that 2022 has seen 11 foreign-funded automobile industrial chain projects carried out with investments totaling 21.42 billion yuan ($3.02 billion). Six of them are invested in by Fortune 500 companies.

Over the first nine months of this year, the zone's foreign direct investment (FDI) stood at $490 million, a year-on-year increase of nine percent, while the automobile manufacturing FDI surged 63 percent over the same period last year.

The multinational automotive electronics supplier and Fortune 500 company Visteon Corporation agreed to set up its second Chinese R&D center in WEDZ. The center was unveiled on Sept 21, further extending the zone's automotive industrial chain to include intelligent cockpits.

Visteon's second Chinese R&D center is unveiled in WEDZ on Sept 21. [Photo provided to en.whkfq.gov.cn]

In the first three quarters of this year, WEDZ's industrial project investment exceeded 115.2 billion yuan. Among these projects, 20 are funded by Fortune 500 companies, five are worth more than 10 billion yuan, and 12 are open economy projects, making the zone the champion of the city in terms of business promotion.