HONG KONG (03/20/2000) - Shanghai officials on Saturday opened the Pudong Software Park, a center for development of products for domestic use and export, according to an online report by the official China Daily newspaper.
The park, part of the Pudong Zhangjiang High-Tech Park, initially will have 33 tenants, including foreign-funded, private and state-owned firms. A total of 111 companies are registered to participate in the park, China Daily reported.
A number of high-tech development centers in many of China's eastern cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, and the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone near Hong Kong, recently have attracted significant investment from Chinese and foreign companies.
As in other cases, Shanghai's government offered preferential terms for IT companies to set up shop in the Pudong facility, to encourage development of high-tech industry in the city, according to the report.
The completed first phase of the facility totals 35,000 square meters of work space and is projected to produce 500 million renminbi (US$60.4 million) worth of software this year. Work will begin soon on the second and third phases of the project, China Daily reported.
The Pudong district of Shanghai, opposite the city's traditional business district, has been massively redeveloped over the past several years as a new business center for the city.