Tech park set for Hangzhou

Tech park set for Hangzhou
By Gareth Powell, July 10, 2007
Ascendas, a leading business space services provider in Asia based in Singapore, will invest RMB3.5 billion ($460.15 million) in its fourth information-technology park in China. The new facility will be in Hangzhou and will be the fourth, the others are in Xi’an, Dalian and Nanjing.

The park, located in the Xiasha satellite town and covering 430,000 square meters, is expected to host several hundred IT companies and 30,000 to 50,000 industry professionals when it’s finished in five to eight years time.

A joint project with the Hangzhou Economic Development Area Administration, the park aims to serve as a hub for business process outsourcing, information technology outsourcing and research and development.

The project’s first phase, which covers 40,000 square meters, will be completed by the end of next year.

Chong Siak Ching, president and chief executive officer of Ascendas, seen in our illustration, said, ‘Service outsourcing is a rapidly emerging industry in Asia, and the total size of China’s service outsourcing industry is estimated to hit $3.1 billion in 2007, year-on-year growth of 29%. Like our involvement elsewhere in Asia, our Hangzhou park reiterates our long-term commitment to further driving the industry here by working closely with the Chinese government.’

Ascendas said in March that it plans to more than triple its investment in China within the next five years. Ascendas entered the Chinese market in 1995 in the Suzhou Industrial Park in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province and now runs operations in 10 cities across the country, mainly in the east and north.
Source: Shanghai Post