Have you ever thought of investing in the attractive Binhu District in Wuxi for its proximity to scenic Lake Taihu. Plus its promising new industrial parks, the investment zone also features another attraction: CEIBS alumnus Zhu Weiping (EMBA 2007), the region’s pre-eminent dealmaker.

Zhu Weiping and His Binhu District

With the first sight of Zhu Weiping, the journalist felt the enthusiasm and the spirit of doing which can be seen in an entrepreneur. This is not strange. He is the Party Secretary of Binhu District Committee of CPC in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, as well as a student of EMBA 2007 Class in China Europe International Business School (CEIBS). Besides, he was born in 1961 and graduated from the Administration Engineer Department of Jilin University of Industry (today’s Jilin University) with the master degree of technological economics. Such a degree in the 1980s equaled the current MBA degree. After graduation, Zhu Weiping had been a clerk in the Planning Branch of Wuxi Petrochemical Bureau for 6 years. Because of the dissatisfactory work of the Wuxi Academy of Chemical Industry, a workgroup was organized. Later, Zhu Weiping, as an ordinary member of the workgroup, submitted a proposal on improvement to the leaders, which drew their attention. With good idea, high education degree and juvenescence in the age, Zhu Weiping became the best candidate of the vice-dean. In 1997, Zhu was promoted to the assistant to the general director of the Bureau of Chemical Industry. In the year of 2001, he became the vice-governor of the newly founded Binhu District. In Jan., 2006, he was promoted to the party Secretary of Binhu District Committee of CPC.

Binhu District lies at the southwest of Wuxi. The whole district encircles Lake Taihu in a U-Shape. Though this district’s history is not long, it contains nearly 89% of the tourism resource of Wuxi. So this district is a key point of the urban construction of Wuxi. The development goal of this district is to become the center of Wuxi in administration, commerce, education, technology, tourism and so on.

If people familiar with Binhu District heard of this goal 5 or 6 years ago, they would not believe it. At that time, there were rural lands and traditional factories. But now the visage of the whole district has been completely changed: wide roads go through the whole district, connecting to the other districts and cities; green trees and grass make this district more lovely and more charming; the consummate infrastructure tell people that living or working in this district is very comfortable. There have also been many high-tech and industrial parks in which many well-known domestic and foreign multinationals set their plants or offices. The high-tech industries, such as scientific research and development, cartoon, software and the like, are well developed in those parks. The “530 Plan” proposed by Binhu District government aimed at introducing 30 leading innovation personnel back from overseas in 5 years. Now it is accomplished in two years.

Zhu Weiping and his Binhu District government contributed a lot to the fast shift of this district. In order to carry through the industrial adjustment successfully, Binhu District adopted three measures: the first was the back-out and removal of the traditional factories, regardless of the loss of millions of revenue; the second is to outsource the manufacturing of the enterprises, with the core business of sale and R&D retained in the district; the third is to shift the mode of development, making some enterprises manufacture products with higher added value.

Because Zhu used to do the work related to the production, he has some experience about the business of enterprises. In addition to his master degree of engineer and commerce, he has got good understanding of the industrial structure adjustment and enterprise development. He knew the importance of the advanced management and the ability of innovation. “Our Country is developing by leaps and bounds; yet we still lag behind the world, comparatively speaking. As leaders in charge of people and enterprises, China must learn to better foster creativity,” said Zhu. So he went to the CEIBS to receive further education in 2007. Out of his expectation, he found that many of his classmates had invested in Binhu District. They were attracted by the favorable environment, consummate infrastructure and good innovation circumstance of this district. Their investment has accelerated the development of Binhu District following the policy of optimizing the secondary industry and promoting tertiary industry. And many of them became classmates of the No.1 leader of this district. Their relationship got closer and it was helpful for both the enterprises and the district.

The Planning for Outsourcing of Binhu District

As Binhu District is the key area of the modernization of Wuxi city, it is impossible to develop traditional manufacturing industry in this district. More than 85% of Wuxi’s scenic spots gather there and more than 85% of the college students in Wuxi are reading and living there. So the development of high-tech industry giving priority to the outsourcing services is the only suitable way for the development of Binhu District.

Binhu District government has already established a series of planning for the development of outsourcing services in Binhu District. The development outline for the outsourcing services in Binhu District in the period from 2007 to 2010 gave definite stipulations on the goal, demand, and measures of the outsourcing development. Zhu Weiping has decided to build a round-Lake-Taihu golden zone of outsourcing services before 2010.

In Zhu Weiping’s opinion, Binhu District has great advantages. The beautiful scene of the district creates the environmental advantages. In addition to the advantages of lower cost of management and labor force compared to the large cities like Beijing and Shanghai, Binhu District of Wuxi city is the delivery center for the outsourcing enterprises in Beijing, Shanghai and the other first-class Chinese cities. It is also the center of profit and lower cost after the decrease in the cost.

Binhu District’s government also invited IDC Corporation to evaluate the development of the outsourcing services in the district. IDC Corporation also helped to formulate the medium and long-term development planning from 2008 to 2020. Besides, Zhu Weiping also recognized the importance of the supporter of the outsourcing development. In order to meet the demand of the development, Binhu District’s government has planned to build supporters for the outsourcing enterprises. The total area is 1 million m2, with more than a half finished.

In Zhu Weiping’s opinion, the current situation of the outsourcing industry is not so serious as what is said outside. In contrast, both the central and local governments pay great attention to the outsourcing industry. Wuxi particularly attaches importance to this. Yang Weize, party secretary of Wuxi, personally took charge of the “123 Plan” of developing outsourcing services in Wuxi, aiming at giving out 1.5 billion Yuan (241.3 million USD) to support the development of outsourcing industry. Yang oftentimes said that they would turn Wuxi into China’s Bangalore. A series of supporting policies were released by relevant state ministries and People’s Government of Jiangsu Province, So Zhu Weiping thought the spring for the outsourcing services had come.

Roles of the Governments

In Zhu Weiping’s opinion, there are four main responsibilities of the governments in developing the outsourcing services: formulate supporting policies, set up service platforms, reserve talented people and build development supporters. In the process of developing outsourcing services in Binhu District, the government firstly formulated the policies, providing favorable environment and supporting policies for the settle-down and growing of the outsourcing enterprises in Binhu District. In order to attract the outsourcing enterprises, Binhu District’s government has set up a series of supporting policies, ranking from the decrease or remittal of the land rent to the awards for export. A talented person in outsourcing who is trained in Binhu District, will receive the 4500 Yuan (643 USD) subsidy from the district’s government in addition to the 4500 Yuan (643 USD) from the State Ministry of Commerce. The second measure is to improve the work of building various platforms. For example, they introduced the commercialized IBM Cloud Computing Center in China, which is the first one in the world. A lot of other platforms have been built up for the convenience of developing outsourcing industry. The third measure is to accelerate the training of talented people. Binhu District’s government has signed with Beijing University to collaborate on the Wuxi Training Base of Software and Micro-electric Department of Beijing University to cultivate people with engineer master degree in software. It has also signed with Jiangnan University (a local university in Wuxi) to bring up talented people in software directionally for the outsourcing enterprises in the district. The fourth measure is to quicken the construction of office building and supporting facilities suitable for the outsourcing enterprises.

Presently the phenomenon that the local governments are too active in developing outsourcing services can be seen in many places. According to Zhu Weiping, although developing outsourcing services is an effective way of upgrading industrial level and realizing the shift in industrial development, it needs certain industrial foundation and economic conditions. Zhu Weiping also thought that there was the phenomenon that some cities or provinces, regardless of their own conditions, tried to develop outsourcing services unreasoningly. For Binhu District, Zhu thought, developing outsourcing services was not from temporary impulse, but the obligation the history endowed them and the must of economic development. Zhu Weiping said: “It is necessary for us to develop outsourcing services in Binhu District because it is a must of upgrading industry and protecting the environment of our district.”

Zhu Weiping also gave some suggestions on how to improve governments’ work in developing outsourcing services. In his opinion, the first work is to improve the understanding of outsourcing industry through studying, so that the actuality and direction of the development of outsourcing services can be understood and forecasting supporting policies can be set to accelerate the development of local outsourcing industry. The second one is to spread the foresights further and widely. Eager for instant success and benefit must be forbidden. Zhu also suggested people not to judge the outsourcing development with temporary gain and loss. Great patience and long-range foresight are needed. The third one is just like what is mentioned above. Governments should satisfy the need of enterprises through formulating supporting policies, setting up service platforms, reserving talented people and building development supporters.

Unique Advantages Binhu District Has

Now many cities and provinces are trying to develop their outsourcing industry. Binhu District faces competition and challenge from the other places. For this, Zhu Weiping thought Binhu District had unparalleled advantages. He said: “We own natural-born advantage that other places don’t have. Take Wuxi Taihu New Town Science & Education Industrial Park for example. It lies at the foot of Mount Xuelang. Changguang Brook, one of the Top 9 urban wetlands goes through the park. Jiangnan University and some other universities and academies are located there. Besides, some well-known pharmaceutical enterprises, such as Wuxi PharmaTech Co. Ltd and so on, stand in this park. So we orient Wuxi Taihu New Town Science & Education Industrial Park as the outsourcing zone of Wuxi bio-medical R&D. With those conditions, we cannot have homogeneous competition with other places in the development of outsourcing services.”

Hearing Zhu Weiping’s confident talk and seeing the green hills and blue water in Binhu District, we believe that there is great outlook waiting for them.