RISE REGIONAL INTEGRATION FOR SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIES EXTENDING THE MARKET PLACE BEYOND URBAN BOUNDARIES INTEGRATED INFRASTRUCTURE ROADMAPS  FOR DEVELOPING ECONOMIES by the PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION COUNCIL (PECC) and the International Organization on ASIA-PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION (APEC)

Date:February 8, 2000 

To:RISE Executive Committee and Senior Advisors 

From:Carole Brookins 

Subj:Report on RISE RGC Site Visit to Jiangmen City, China 

Dear Members of the Executive Committee and Senior Advisors: 

1.  First, I'd like to thank the participants on our January site visits to Jiangmen City and Manado-Bitung.  Following is a trip report from the Jiangmen trip.  The Manado-Bitung report will be distributed next week. (The trip participants are listed at the beginning of each site visit section of these report). 

Secondly, on behalf of the committee, I want to give very special thanks to H.F.(Alex) Chu and his associates at Dah Chong Hong (DCH) for their key role in planning and providing tremendous operational support and resources to the Jiangmen RGC project; and to Ambassador Guo Jiading who has brought the vision and support of China National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation to RISE. 

Third, Bambang Bintoro and Chris Summers deserve our gratitude for carrying 
forward Manado-Bitung's participation, and for their leadership and critical input in preparing and shepherding the Manado-Bitung IEDZ. 

And, lastly, we are grateful to President Chino and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for supporting the site visit participation of Yang Weimin and Brad Philips.  They made a valuable contribution in our dialogue with RGC officials and private members of our team by bringing the vital linkages of the ADB mission and project support into our discussions. 
  
2.  All Executive Committee/Senior Advisors will be receiving by mail a copy of the materials that were presented by the Jiangmen City and Manado-Bitung teams.  These provide details of proposed projects and more detailed descriptions of the RGC economies. 

The following report provides a review of the site visit to Jiangmen City and plans for further cooperation in carrying out the RISE RGC advisory process. 

JIANGMEN CITY (GUANGDONG) CHINA 
Site Visit:  January 19-20, 2000 

Executive Committee/Senior Advisor/Delegation Participants: 
H.F. (Alex) Chu, Group Deputy Chief Executive, and Executive-in-charge of 
Trading Group, Dah Chong Hong, Ltd. (Hong Kong, China) 
Yang Weimin, Director, Agriculture & Social Sectors Department, Asian 
Development Bank 
Shigeru Endo, Counselor, Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (Japan) 
Carole Brookins, Chair, PECC Food & Agriculture Forum, Co-Chair, APEC-PECC 
RISE Regional Growth Center Initiative (USA) 
Chris Summers, Partner, Training & Development Consultants, Advisor for 
Infrastructure-National Development Planning Board  (Indonesia) 
Peter Schaefer, Managing Director, APEC-PECC RISE Regional Growth Center 
Initiative (USA) 
Michael Liu, Marketing & Development Manager of Provisions, Dah Chong Hong, 
Ltd. (HKC) 
Steed Yung, Assistant General Manager of Provisions Division, Dah Chong 
Hong, Ltd. (HKC) 
Gary Kong, Manager, Heaven Treasure Limited (Hong Kong, China) 
Anita Chomsky, Project Coordinator, APEC-PECC RISE Regional Growth Center 
Initiative (USA) 

Site Visit Program: 
The RISE team's site visit was graciously hosted and organized by Jiangmen 
City Mayor Jiang Jin and his associates.  Mayor Jiang and his associates had prepared detailed descriptions of 19 investment projects (a list is attached) which they would like to be considered in the RISE RGC initiative.  Six of these projects are basic infrastructure; thirteen projects are in the food and agro-industry sector. 

The first day of the visit began with a meeting and video (also on CD-Rom) of the agriculture situation in Jiangmen City and ended with a banquet hosted by Party Secretary Zhong Yangsheng.  In addition to Secretary Zhong's speech, Executive Vice Chairman of the China National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation Ambassador Guo Jiading also addressed the banquet. 

On 19-20 January the team visited several projects which spanned existing manufacturing,  infrastructure and agro-food system business and research: 
*  Jiangmen Great Yangtze River Group 
*  Jiangmen Jinling Group 
*  Jiangmen Wenchangsha Wastewater Treatment Plant 
*  Second Phase Project for Ostrich Farming & Processing Industrial Base, Jiangmen City 
*  Project to Expand Jiangmen Fruit & Vegetable Freshness-retaining Company 
*  Jiangmen Sugarcane Chemical Plant (A Project for Paper Fabric Material Base in Jiangmen) 
*  Extended Construction of the Demonstration Base for Higher Efficient Soilless Culture in Plastic-Shed Greenhouse by Xinhui Modern Agriculture Development Corporation, Ltd. 

RISE RGC ADVISORY: NEXT STEPS 
The RISE RGC Executive Committee members believe that Jiangmen City can be 
positioned to attract a wide range of further investment, including development of some of the proposed projects.  Six projects are basic infrastructure that could be supported by public or private investment; the other thirteen have the potential to be fully privatized, or could be jointly developed with Jiangmen City. 

Although we did not have time to visit different agricultural production regions, Jiangmen City's video/CD-Rom provided a general overview of the four agricultural belts for development: aquatic, ecological, rice and vegetable production. The agro-food system sites we visited--vegetable processing and hydroponic vegetables and flowers enterprises--were specifically noted, along with the potential to assist in developing commercial marketing linkages for the ostrich production (both skins and meat).  Jiangmen City currently has an estimated 1,121 agricultural processing enterprises of various sizes. 

Yang Weimin suggested that Jiangmen City further its project proposals in 
three ways: 

--Define further the concept and design of sub-projects 
--Conduct more thorough marketing surveys for these projects 
--Provide more information on the ownership/management of each project 

Mayor Jiang said that most large projects are currently owned by the government, but are run by separate companies owned by the government. These are open to private investment.  Jiangmen City's objective is for the small projects to be run by private companies.  In both instances, the government is prepared to implement policies that can provide favorable concessions to support the rate of return on the investment. 

The Mayor's 2010 goal is to accelerate modernization of agriculture and the agro-food system, and to improve the social (education/health care) and economic standards of rural villages. 

In our wrap-up session at the end of the site visit, Mayor Jiang Jin expressed his support to advancing the Jiangmen City development plan in coordination with the RISE RGC Advisory Process.  He suggested two specific objectives of the cooperation from the Executive Committee and Jiangmen City as a follow on to the site visit: 

1.  RISE RGC Executive Committee assistance in analyzing the 19 proposed projects and ideas about any other projects that might be developed and attractive to investment; and advice on the appropriate policies for encouraging foreign investors. 

2.  Cooperation between Jiangmen City and RISE to plan and conduct a conference in May 2000 focused on considerations necessary to implementing 
Jiangmen City's agriculture and small town development using the RISE RGC 
strategic approach. 

In response to the Mayor's requests, the following was committed: 

1.  MAY CONFERENCE: 
Jiangmen City will host a conference/symposium in cooperation with China's 
PECC and RISE on 22-23 May.  The conference date was planned to coordinate 
with APEC's ABAC meeting in Beijing on 25-26 May.  Carole Brookins will 
coordinate with Mayor Jiang and Ambassador Guo on the program content and 
speakers.  In addition to Chinese participation, Mayor Jiang would like for 
30 overseas people to participate, including the World Bank, the Asian 
Development Bank, representatives of international commercial banks and 
financial organizations, foreign business interests, specialists and 
scholars. 

2.  PROJECT FEASIBILITY AND INVESTMENT SUPPORT: 
Alex Chu committed a DCH team to conduct a special project study on the 
feasibility of the 19 proposed projects in Jiangmen City.  This feasibility information will be shared with the Executive Committee.  He additionally 
committed to sharing with the Mayor his experience in helping Shanghai with 
its "food basket project" which was developed to enable agricultural entrepreneurs to fully integrate vertically into the food marketing system. 

Shigeru (Sid) Endo will be working with Alex Chu to assess the feasibility 
of the projects and to assist with marketing, technology and investor input.  The Mayor has a trip planned to Japan in March and Endo-san will organize a program that includes introduction to appropriate Japanese agro-food technologies that could be applicable to development of Jiangmen's agro-food system. 

Peter Schaefer will be working on business facilitation, quality control 
issues, investor relations and development of the capacities and participation of Jiangmen City's chamber of commerce private business 
entrepreneurs. 

Carole Brookins will additionally be exploring potential cooperation on improving quality control in agro-food processing with U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs (such as Cochran Program) and with the USAID Asia Environmental Partnership (AEP). 

ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (ADB) MISSION AND FINANCE: 
Yang Weimin addressed financing issues and presented the linkages of the 
Jiangmen City RISE RGC to the ADB mission in a number of key areas: the 
development of small and medium-sized cities, the linkage of rural:urban 
areas, promoting private and public sector partnerships to finance 
development (including domestic and international investors), community 
participation, developing a nucleus/hub for rural areas and environmental 
sustainability. 

There are two financing components to consider: projects with long-term 
returns will require the involvement of international development agencies 
like the ADB and World Bank; and projects with short-term returns that can 
attract foreign investors.  Jiangmen City's role should be to play a supportive role--to attract and build private investment--through regulatory, legal and technical training structures. 

Potential World Bank or ADB financing could be appropriate to support the 
proposed wastewater treatment infrastructure project, which is linked to environmental and health objectives. 

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RISE Recommended Projects Catalogue 
Jiangmen City, China 
  
1. Jiangmen Wenchangsha Wastewater Treatment Plant 
2. Jiangmen Municipal Construction Project of Piping Gas 
3. Jiangmen-Heshan Expressway 
4. Construction of Jiangmen-Zhuhai Expressway (Jiangmen Section) 
5. The Gonwan Bay Cage Culture Base at Shangchuan Island, Taishan 
6. A Project for Wet Case Marine Culture Xing Ye Base in Jiangmen 
7. Meat Processing Base of Changjiang Foodstuff Co., Ltd., Taishan 
8. A Project to Establish a Food Advance Processing Base in Jiangmen 
9. Extended Construction of the Demonstration Base for Higher Efficient 
Soilless Culture in Plastic-Shed Greenhouse by Xinhui Modern Agriculture 
Development Corporation, Ltd. 
10. Magang Geese Breeding, Raising and Processing Base, Jiangmen 
Municipality 
11. Jiangmen Sugarcane Chemical Plant (A Project for Paper Fabric Material 
Base in Jiangmen) 
12. Second Phase Project for Ostrich Farming & Processing Industrial Base, 
Jiangmen City 
13. Integrated Improvement of Jinjiang Reservoir in Jiangmen 
14. Project to Expand Jiangmen Fruit & Vegetable Freshness-Retaining 
Company 
15. Project of Liquid and Injection Medicine Workshop of Nanhua Veterninary 
Medicine Plant 
16. Technological Innovation Project for Aniline Herbicide in Jiangmen 
17. Expansion of the Wholesale Market of Aquatic Products (Salt Fisheries) 
in Jiangmen City 
18. The Construction Project of Tian-ma Operation Zone of Xinhui Port 
19. Project of Fruit & Vegetable Freshness-Retaining, Dehydration and 
Processing of Enping 
 

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