Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06GUANGZHOU11065
2006-04-11 03:51:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Consulate Guangzhou
Cable title:  

Short March: Jaunt Through Jieyang -- Poor But

Tags:  ECON ETRD EINV ECIN ELAB CH 
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ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 110351Z APR 06 ZDK CTG RUEHTC 6815 1011214
FM AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4454
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUANGZHOU 011065 

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/CM, EAP/PD
STATE PASS USTR
USDOC FOR 4420/ITA/MAC/MCQUEEN, CELICO, DAS LEVINE
USPACOM FOR FPA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON ETRD EINV ECIN ELAB CH
SUBJECT: Short March: Jaunt Through Jieyang -- Poor But

Refreshingly Honest

Ref: Guangzhou 11043 and previous

GUANGZHOU 00011065 001.2 OF 002


(U) This document is sensitive but unclassified. Please
protect accordingly. Not for release outside u.s.
government channels. Not for internet publication.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUANGZHOU 011065

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/CM, EAP/PD
STATE PASS USTR
USDOC FOR 4420/ITA/MAC/MCQUEEN, CELICO, DAS LEVINE
USPACOM FOR FPA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON ETRD EINV ECIN ELAB CH
SUBJECT: Short March: Jaunt Through Jieyang -- Poor But

Refreshingly Honest

Ref: Guangzhou 11043 and previous

GUANGZHOU 00011065 001.2 OF 002


(U) This document is sensitive but unclassified. Please
protect accordingly. Not for release outside u.s.
government channels. Not for internet publication.


1. (SBU) Summary: One of the oldest and most densely
populated municipalities in the province, Jieyang in
eastern Guangdong has not been nearly as successful as its
neighbors in economic development. Local officials
admitted that they might not be up to the challenge of
overcoming numerous problems the municipality faces,
including poor infrastructure, business environment
weaknesses, and the lack of quality human capital. End
Summary

"Two Thousand Years Old"
--------------

2. (U) In Jieyang, the next stop in Consulate Guangzhou's
"short march" to the "Chao-Shan" region of eastern
Guangdong (reftel),Vice Mayor Wu Zili extolled the long
history of the city. It was founded in 214 B.C. as a
garrison camp by Qin Shihuang, the first Emperor of China,
and named after the Jieyang Ridge, one of the five ancient
ridges in China. This makes the city much older than its
much better known neighbors, Shantou to its southeast and
Chaozhou to its northeast.


3. (SBU) Jieyang is one of the most populous
municipalities in northeastern Guangdong, with a population
of over 6 million crowded in an area of 5,240 square
kilometers. The total GDP for 2004 of Jieyang was RMB 42.1
billion (US$ 5.3 billion),and its chief exports are
textiles, shoes, and plastic consumer products with primary
export markets being Hong Kong, Macau, Japan and the United
States, and Wu encouraged American enterprises to come look
at the business environment in the city.

Why Jieyang?
--------------

4. (SBU) If American enterprises did come to Jieyang, they
might be turned off by what they hear. In a meeting
presided over by Deputy Secretary General Lin Junsheng,

Development and Reform Bureau (DRB) Deputy Director Chen
Fanghao presented easily the most uninspiring and least
informative presentation that Congenoffs had ever heard,
throwing in every concept, slogan, and buzzword in the 11th
five year plan playbook. When we asked what specific
projects Jieyang had in mind to implement its five year
plan, Economic and Trade Bureau Deputy Director Xu Ronghe
responded for Chen, saying that even though Jieyang has a
number of largely small and medium sized enterprises and a
few ideas like creating some special experimental
development areas to attract industry, prospects are not
all that bright.

Orthodox Thinking Does Not Make Money
--------------

5. (SBU) "We have too many people, and too little land,"
said Xu, and Jieyang people would rather leave than to eke
out a living in this environment. Moreover, previous
attempts at economic development following orthodox
economic planning have not been successful. The city tried
development through heavy industry, but the large capital
costs needed to create heavy industry from scratch was not
economically viable due to the poor infrastructure in the
region and the lack of natural resources, Chen said.
Recent attempts focused on attracting foreign investment
have been largely unsuccessful due to the higher labor,
transport, and materials cost in the area. The city has
largely failed to attract foreign investors, losing to
other cities with lower costs, superior infrastructure, a
more skilled workforce, or a combination of the three.

Trying Again To Build Economic Development
--------------

6. (SBU) To be sure, there are some specific projects in
train, including a new regional airport that will serve
Shantou, Jieyang and Chaozhou, a new highway through

GUANGZHOU 00011065 002.2 OF 002


Jieyang, a new port facility that will be able to handle
5000-ton cargo ships, and improved power transmission and
telecommunication facilities. The government is hoping to
attract tourism, high technology, and investment from the
large overseas community of more than three million people
who are originally from Jieyang and who reside in Taiwan,
Hong Kong, Macau, Southeast Asia, Europe, and Canada. Some
Jieyang returnees have helped create some 1300 small and
and medium enterprises that are key contributors to the
local economy.

Brain Drain
--------------

7. (SBU) Even so, the flow of people and talent seems to
be mostly out. A large number of students are admitted to
prestige universities domestically and abroad, particularly
the United States, but less than a tenth of these college
graduates return home to Jieyang. Most opt to stay
overseas or work elsewhere in China, such as Guangzhou,
Beijing, or Shanghai. The resulting drain of educated
citizens from Jieyang has significantly and negatively
impacted the municipality's economic development.

Innovation and IPR
--------------

8. (SBU) IPR Bureau Director Zhuang Jiling provided a
briefing on Jieyang's IPR situation that rivaled DRB Deputy
Director Chen's in its low degree of useful information,
providing no information on the numbers or types of
enforcement activities and not knowing much about the role
of local business associations. To be fair, we have heard
very few complaints from U.S. businesses about the IPR
situation in Jieyang. Perhaps this is because of the
relatively low level of economic activity in the place or
perhaps that counterfeit products are manufactured locally
but not distributed outside.

Comment: What Are We Doing Wrong?
--------------

9. (SBU) Local officials were refreshingly forthcoming
about their analysis of their situation. They said they
were unable to attract industries since the cost of
production in their city was higher than other cities in
the area. They also admitted that past attempts at
economic development largely failed at creating sustainable
growth. Their solution, however, was to delineate the same
unimaginative plans as other cities: improve
infrastructure, attract high tech industries, and promote
tourism without having more of a plan to achieve those
goals other than to hope overseas Chinese with historical
ties to Jieyang will fill the investment vacuum.
But handicapped with its denser population, less skilled
workforce, and unclear planning, Jieyang's prospects do not
look particularly rosy.


10. (SBU) One would think that a city with a history of
two thousand years might have some distinct cultural
sights, and Jieyang officials chose to show us the city's
old Confucian temple, which dates back to the Ming Dynasty.
Architecturally and aesthetically interesting though it may
be, the temple is not presented very well although its
wooden Confucian figurines were protected during the
Cultural Revolution, perhaps because Zhou Enlai was holed
up in the temple for a week in the late 1920s amidst the
turmoil increased between the Chinese Communist Party and
the Kuomintang not to mention the local warlords (there is
a prominent Zhou museum located on the temple grounds).
This lack of vigor in historical and cultural preservation
not to mention economic development contrasts sharply with
that found in Chaozhou, the next stop in Consulate
Guangzhou's "short march" to eastern Guangdong.

Dong