I. General introduction

Nantou Town, a new industrial town, is located in the south of the Pearl River Delta and the north of Zhongshan City. It is close to the PRD estuary and Shunde District of Foshan City. The whole town covers about 28 square kilometers with a registered population of 42000 and 60000 migrants. In recent years, Nantou Town has kept a rapid and sustained development and all social causes have made progress. It has won honors such as China's Household Electrical Appliance Industry Base, National Sanitary Town, National Advanced Civilized Town, Model Town of Guangdong Province, Town of Education of Guangdong Province and Industrial Town of Zhongshan City. In 2006 GDP of the whole town reached four billion yuan, an increase of 21% over the previous year; the total industrial output value was 16.15 billion yuan, an increase of 24%; the tax revenue was 560 million yuan, an increase of 24% over the previous year.

II. Transportation and infrastructure

Nantou Town has convenient transportation and it goes in all direction both by road and by water. Nantou-Sanxiang Highway goes through the town and connects Beijing-Zhuhai Expressway and No. 105 National Highway. West Guangzhou-Zhuhai Expressway and Guangzhou-Zhuhai Light Rail, which are under construction will pass by the town and set up a station and passageways. When these projects are completed, it will take only 40-minute drive to reach Guangzhou and Zhuhai and 1-hour drive to Shenzhen. Nantou Town enjoys the same convenient sea transport and it is only 20-minute drive to Shunde Port and 30-minute drive to Zhongshan Port, from which it takes 1 hour and 20 minutes to Hong Kong by ferry. Nantou Town has a coastline of 7.5 kilometers, and 1200-ton vessels can easily pass through.

The infrastructure of Nantou Town is complete and meets the needs for the development of medium-sized cities. The central area of the town reaches 12 square kilometers with improved facilities of water, electricity, communications and others. It has an active commodity market and improved financial, cultural, sanitary, education and sports service system. It has comfortable living environment with continuous improvement of greening and landscaping. The green coverage reaches 24% or more and it has complete catering and entertaining facilities. The town has over 10 hotels and guest houses, including 2 three-star hotels, which can provide customers with high-quality reception and conference services. Nantou Town is an ideal choice for both investment and living.

III. Investment services

Nantou Town has built a sound investment climate by providing services with high-quality and high-efficiency. Nantou Town Industrial Development Co., Ltd. sets up a business service center, which is responsible for coordination of different departments and advisory services to serve investors in order to protect the legitimate rights and interests of investors, and provide one-stop services for free.

IV. Industrial structure and economic progress

Nantou Town attracts businessmen from all over the world with its sound investment climate. Nantou Town has built an improved industrial system to cultivate industries with characteristics and promote the development of large-scale and intensive economy. In 2006 there were over 900 industrial enterprises including 248 above-scale enterprises. And there were 31 enterprises, of which the output value exceeds 100 billion yuan each in 2006. There are now 5 brand-name enterprises, 7 enterprises exempted from national inspection, 15 high-tech enterprises of Guangdong Province and 19 enterprises that have built municipal technological centers. Investors are from Japan, the United States, Britain, Canada, Netherlands, Hong Kong and Macao, Taiwan and other countries and regions as well as Sichuan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong and other places. Major industries include home appliances, hardware, machinery, chemicals, electronics, printing, building materials and textile.

Household Appliance is the pillar industry in Nantou. Nantou Town is located in the center of household appliance industrial clusters in China and it has a fine atmosphere as well as advantages of resources, personnel, information technology and scale economy. The government capitalized on the trend and created the hardware and software environment for development of the household electrical appliance industry. Nantou Town has attracted a large number of household appliance manufacturers and investors in the industrial chains. It makes the appliance industrial chain extend further and improved. There are in the town over 250 enterprises including large household appliance manufacturing enterprises that mainly produce the air conditioner, central air conditioner, mobile air conditioner, TV, refrigerators, dehumidifiers, etc. and small household appliance enterprises that produce electric fans, rice cookers, electric heater, etc. There are over 400 supporting enterprises in the chain of household appliances. The output value of these appliance manufacturing and supporting enterprises accounts for over 80 percent of the total output of the town. Gradually, it has formed special industrial advantages with large household appliances like the air conditioner, TV, refrigerator, etc. as the leading power and all types of small appliance as supporting forces. Nantou Town was entitled by Science and Technology Department of Guangdong Province with the honor of “Model town of household appliance industrial cluster upgrading in Guangdong province”. At present, as the first national household appliance industrial base, Nantou Town gains a more and more impressive name and influence and a large number of enterprises are growing to outperform others in Zhongshan.