Xi'An, The Main Street
Xi’an (as in most online abbreviation “Xa”) is China’s ancient city. As part of our “China South to North” tour of 2010, we finally come to this city of 3000-years old and had an up and personal look at this great city of Terra Cotta and High-Tech Outsourcing.
Xi’an, called Chang’an (means long lasting prosperity in Chinese) in ancient times, is one of the birthplaces of the ancient civilization in the Yellow River area of the country. In its 3,100 years history, 13 dynasties placed their capitals here. Xi’an was the western terminus of the famous Silk Road, which connected East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean World.
In its modern days, Xi’An, with more than 30 Chinese universities and colleges under its belt, boasts China’s most important software outsourcing industry serving Fortune 500 around the world. Multinational companies and organizations such as Google, Baidu, NEC, Fujistu and Siemens amongst others have set up their R&D centers in Xi’an.
e-Park Development Center, Xi'An
The growth of high-tech industries in Xi’an is remarkable. Its landmark, The Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone (XDZ), is part of the organizational network of the APEC technological park and is classified by the Chinese State Ministry of Science and Technology as one of the five national high-tech industrial development sites. It was regarded as one of the six most vigorous cities and areas of China by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).
Well, as for this innovation, I don't really have a name for it, maybe...terra cotta mannequin?
Software company that is willing to set up presence in Xi’An will find abundant benefits and subsides from the government anything from free rental, interest-free loan to hiring incentive. The place where most startups call home is the Xi’an Software Development Center located at No. 72 Keji 2nd Road. The staff there will explain in detail all the policy and latest development of the Park.
Further reading on China setting the new trend of global outsourcing, Rebecca Fannin of Chief Executive magazine has published this in-depth article.
According to the article, “Reaching toward its long-term vision of moving up the value chain from manufacturing to services and high tech, the Chinese government has crafted an ambitious long-term plan. In 2006, officials unveiled a $1 billion program that earmarked 10 Chinese cities as outsourcing bases and provided incentives, tax breaks and subsidies to further develop capabilities of the country’s 1,000 outsourcing vendors to serve multinational customers”
Talk about a study of contrasts: modern-day IT outsourcing set in an ancient city in China. I’m glad to see that a country as traditional as China has opened itself to international trade, and has taken it even further by becoming one of the world’s leading outsourcing countries.