A focus on Hebei Province: relatioship with Veneto Region

Abstract

Hebei is situated in one of the China's major urban and industrial regions; its strategic geographic position and therefore ports on coastal areas facilitate trade and resource exchange, increasing economic development. In addition to an overview on general economy, the first part of this work wants to give some information about primary, secondary and tertiary sectors, namely focusing on the importance of rural areas in Hebei Province, major industries, infrastructures and import and export business, showing the peculiarities of tourism industry too. Moreover, environmental issues are analysed, specifically pollution problems arising from the industrialization recently got under way. The second part shifts focus towards Foreign Investment, a fundamental determinant to growth in China. Several policies were implemented to ease FDI access on supported sectors like manufacturing, therefore encouraging foreign companies to invest in Hebei Province, with the aim of boosting mergers and acquisition and seeking cooperation opportunities, focusing on construction of developed zones. Specifically, a forecast of the total amount of FDI in Hebei Province for 2020 is US$ 6.9 billion. Additionally, FDI influences Hebei export trade positively, improving structure of foreign trade. Regarding European investment, since 1991, over 100 companies from 13 European countries invested in Hebei. A case study of an Italian multinational company which invested in Zhuozhou (Baoding) is described, considering difficulties a foreign company could face when investing in China. The third part is the key topic, which consists in analysing the agreement between Veneto Promozione S.c.p.A., a Society for internationalization and promotion of the Veneto economic system and the China Council of International Commerce Hebei Chamber of Commerce, an agreement existing from 1988 and renewed in 2013. One of the key point of the agreement was to favour commerce trade and industrial and economic cooperation between the business communities of Veneto and Hebei Province, allowing therefore the promotion of seminars and informative meetings on different topics, like food, environment and trade, “with the aim of maximising the information impact on both Veneto and Hebei Province businesses interested parties in starting or developing a relationship of acknowledgement and cooperation”.