The coastal city of Ningbo in east China's Zhejiang province officially opened up to the outside world in 1979, and in 1984, it was listed as one of the 14 coastal cities of the Chinese Mainland to further open up.
In May 1999, Ove Nodland first visited Ningbo and relocated there with his family just two months later. Now, he serves as one of the new merchant ambassadors of the city.
As a Norwegian, Nodland was pleased to learn of the strong connections that Ningbo people had to the ocean, their interest to explore the world, and their desire to set up businesses across the globe. Feeling that both Norwegians and Ningbonese had much in common, he made the decision to relocate.
Over the past few years, he has worked to develop both business opportunities and the relationship between Ningbo and the Nordic countries.
"I've had a unique opportunity to be part of Ningbo's tremendous and unparalleled development during these 20 years," said Nodland, who was awarded the title of Merchant Ambassador of Ningbo at a symposium for Ningbo's international investment cooperation in the city on June 8.
As Nodland saw firsthand, Ningbo has enhanced its business environment over the years, and is now working to expand its economic and trade ties with foreign countries. One of the ways this is achieved is by hosting dozens of economic and trade events in the city, including the symposium that he attended, embracing representatives of governments and companies from many foreign countries around the world.
Beneficial government support
Recalling his first visit to Ningbo, Nodland said he saw a city and a people with a great potential, a city with diversified businesses, and great entrepreneurship.
After settling down with his family here in 1999, he set up a greenfield business in Ningbo with the support from the local government.
That same year, Ningbo hosted the first China Zhejiang Investment and Trade Symposium, during which 457 projects worth US$3.83 billion were signed between Zhejiang province and other parts of China and foreign countries.
Investments and businesses cannot flourish without important elements such as public services, education, health services, infrastructure, entertainment, and culture. Nodland said he believes Ningbo lacked many services on his arrival in the summer of 1999.
However, the Ningbo government with considerate support and dedication, decided it was time for a change.
"There was a strong commitment by the government to both learn and understand people's expectations and suggestions, and, most importantly, to plan accordingly," he said.
Cooperating closely with the local government, Nodland established the Nordic Industrial Park (NIP) in 2002.
Nodland still clearly remembers all the help provided by the government when he established the NIP with a "relatively modest investment".
The help included communicating what the government could offer and honoring its promises, facilitating registration and construction permits, and even greeting all the clients he brought here.
"20 years ago, the gap between foreign investors and government staff was much bigger as expectations, culture, and language were all challenges, but now, the gap has narrowed," Nodland said, adding that the processing procedures are much easier today.
Over the years, NIP has expanded from essentially a non-existing community in Ningbo to the largest concentration of Nordic businesses in China, resulting in a Nordic community of around 150 people.
Based on its success, NIP is still considered by many as one of the best examples of how to generate not only a business but also friendship in Ningbo and other nations. Many people Nodland met 20 years ago are still his friends today.
Favorable atmosphere and sound development
Now, Ningbo is implementing the "One Time at Most" reform, which states that with the necessary documents and if all legal conditions are met, companies can complete the application affairs process just by going to a service window - whereas before, the process was much more complicated. Furthermore, Ningbo has an efficient government, ranking among the top ten in the National Public Service Satisfaction Survey, and the transparency of Ningbo municipal government ranks first among comparable cities.
After 20 years, the city, once thought by Nodland to have great potential, proved its capability.
This year, the China Zhejiang Investment and Trade Symposium is celebrating its 20th session. The event held on June 7 witnessed the signing of 24 projects with a total investment of 65.89 billion yuan (US$10.29 billion), among which 14 were major foreign-invested projects, worth 31.03 billion yuan (US$4.85 billion).
At this year's China Zhejiang Investment and Trade Symposium, the Ningbo Economic and Technological Development Zone and Ningbo Free Trade Area both ranked in the top ten open platforms of Zhejiang province, and at the Zhejiang Provincial Opening-up Conference held in May, Ningbo claimed five seats among the top ten counties or districts of foreign trade.
Also, this year at an investment and trade symposium specifically held for Ningbo, a total of 24 foreign-investment projects were signed, with a contracted investment of US$1.88 billion, and 49 domestic projects with a total investment of over 130 billion yuan (US$20.3 billion).
In the meantime, Ningbo has also developed from a city that few Nordic people had ever heard of, to one that many now call home. The city is also referred to as one of China's happiest cities" and the most attractive city for investment in China".
"Ningbo stands out as a very attractive city for people to visit and live in, and therefore also a great place for doing business,” Nodland said, stating that it has great facilities, generous support from the government, and even a Nordic community and environment.
"None of these achievements would have been possible without the dedicated support of the government, which proves that Ningbo has an excellent business environment and that the government is determined to continue to develop," Nodland said.
Promoting trade ties
Ningbo, as a critical city along the Belt and Road Initiative routes, is vigorously furthering its cooperation with the 16 Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC), including Hungary, Latvia, Poland, and the Czech Republic, which are important components of the Belt and Road.
These relations are strengthened by a series of economic and trade events enhancing the China-CEEC partnership in conjunction with the international economic and trade events recently held in Ningbo.
Among the events, ministerial representatives of China and the CEEC unveiled the nameplate of a demonstration zone for China and the CEEC economic and trade cooperation.
The demonstration zone unveiled in Ningbo claims to be the first of its kind to be built in the region, as well as the country, under the Budapest Outline for Cooperation between China and CEEC published during the sixth meeting of heads of government of China and the CEEC in November 2017.
The demonstration zone, now officially under construction in Ningbo, would enrich the achievements of China-CEEC cooperation and establish a model for other cities to engage in economic and trade cooperation with the CEEC, said Fu Ziying, China's vice minister of commerce.
According to the construction plan, Ningbo aims to use the demonstration zone as the first choice for CEEC products to enter China, the first choice for bidirectional investment cooperation between China and the CEEC, and the first choice for cultural exchanges between China and the CEEC.
The "16+1" cooperation between China and the CEEC started in 2012 in Warsaw, and later expanded to multiple sectors. From 2014 to 2017, China's import and export trade with the CEEC increased from 7.55 percent to 8.73 percent. In 2017, the import-export volume between China and the CEEC exceeded US$68 billion.
According to Ningbo Customs statistics, in 2017, the import and export volume between Ningbo and the CEEC reached 19.79 billion yuan (US$3.09 billion), an increase of 26.8 percent year on year.
Agnese Stūrmane from the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia said, “China has a broad market and a sound foundation for online sales like cross-border e-commerce, and the CEEC looks forward to their trade and investment with China.” She was one of the representatives of the Guest Country of Honor for the fourth China-CEEC Investment and Trade Expo convened in Ningbo from June 7 to 11.
In addition to the ministerial meetings, symposiums, and expos, dozens of other events including a China-CEEC Mayors Forum and other events for cooperation in specific fields like customs, education, and tourism were also held during these few days in Ningbo, yielding fruitful results.
A commitment to foreign trade and investment
Antonio Scialletti, CEO of Italian consultancy company GEA International Ltd., came to Ningbo and attended the 20th Zhejiang provincial investment and trade symposium on June 7. Having been in China for eight years and with a subsidiary in Shanghai, he has long been advising Italian companies to come to China.
Scialletti said when advising Italian industrial companies to move to China, Zhejiang, including Ningbo, is without a doubt, one of the best locations.
"Ningbo has a very good investment environment, because the city has many seaports, and for goods from Europe, it serves as a door to the inside of China," Scialletti said, adding that he feels very positive about the future investment.
Since Ningbo introduced its first foreign-invested project in 1980, the city saw its actual use of foreign investment reach US$1.44 billion by 1991. By the end of 2017, the figure had surpassed US$50 billion, and the cumulative overseas investment of Ningbo exceeded US$10 billion; the import and export trade volume of Ningbo in 2017 reached US$120.6 billion.
The economic aggregate of Ningbo increased from 2 billion yuan to 984.7 billion yuan during the forty years of reform and opening up. In 2017, the cargo output of Ningbo-Zhoushan Port exceeded 1 billion tons, ranking the first in the world; the container throughput of Ningbo-Zhoushan Port ranked fourth in the world. So far, Ningbo has developed trade relations with over 200 countries and regions in the world and is becoming an international hub for the "21st Century Maritime Silk Road".
In the next three years, the city will strive to realize an actual use of foreign investment of up to US$13.5 billion, said Zheng Shanjie, Party secretary of Ningbo Municipal Government, highlighting choosing Ningbo is choosing success for the future.
This is also what Nodland hopes to accomplish. "I will continue to be committed to promoting Ningbo as the preferred destination for foreign investment, as well as the preferred city to live in," Nodland said.
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