Speech by the Governor
Hubei is located in Central China. Wuhan, the provincial capital, is an important traffic hub in China and is renowned as "the thoroughfare of nine provinces".
Hubei is also one of the important industrial bases in China with excellent industrial superiority. Its industries of raw materials, manufacturing and high technology have certain comparative advantages. Hubei is an important production base of commercial rice, cotton and oil and the largest base of fresh water products in China. Its agricultural products resources have great utilization potential. There are advanced science and education, as well as abundant high quality and practical talents in Hubei.
Hubei is one of the earliest opened areas in China and businessmen have gathered here for thousands of years. In recently years, foreign trade has boomed, foreign economic and technical cooperation has been expanded increasingly, the quality of foreign capital utilization has been improved increasingly and modern service industry has a bright future. The implementation of the Rise of Central China creates new opportunities and adds new vigor for Hubei to accelerate development. Hubei gradually becomes a hot spot for foreign investors. We sincerely look forward to cooperating with foreign and domestic investors and creating a better future!
Governor of People's Government of Hubei Province Luo Qingquan
Geographic Location
Hubei Province, E for short, is located in central China. Situated to the north of Dong ting Lake in the middle reaches of Yangtze River, the Province is named Hubei, which means the north of the lake in Chinese. Lying between 29°02’-33°16’ north latitude and 108°21’-116°08’ east longitude, Hubei covers 740 km from the east to the west, 470 km from the north to the south, and an area of 185,900 square km.
The Province has, within its territory, 1,193 rivers, with a total length of 35, 000km, of which the Yangtze River covers 1, 061km within the Province. Numerous lakes of different sizes dot the plain of the Yangtze River and Hanjiang River, giving the Province the name“, Province of Lakes”. It is one of the fresh water lake intensive areas in China.
Hubei Province has within its territory15 large and medium scale cities, including Wuhan, Huangshi, Ezhou, Xianning, Yichang and Xiangfan, etc, 1 autonomous prefecture, 1 forest zone under the province. The capital is Wuhan.
Climate
With subtropical monsoon humid climate, Hubei Province enjoys abundant sunlight, rich resources of heat, long frost-free period, and abundant precipitation. The temperature averages between 15 ℃ and 17 ℃ with the highest average temperature in the hottest month (July) reaching 27-29 ℃ . The annual duration of sunshine averages 1,150-2,245hours. There are 230-300 frost-free days in a year. The annual average rainfall ranges between 800 to 1,600 mm.
Population and Nationalities
The total population of the Province is 60,161,000, with the urban population being 26, 278,000, and rural population being 33, 883, 000. It has 50 nationalities including Han, Tujia, and Miao etc. The population of minority nationalities is 2,579,700, accounting for 4.34% of the total population of the Province. The minority nationalities with relatively larger population include Tujia, Miao, Hui and Dong, etc.
Infrastructure and Transportation
Airports and ports
There are 7 airports in Hubei Province. Wuhan Tianhe Airport, the largest airport in Central China, has now opened international airlines to Japan and Korea, etc. The airports in Yichang, Xiangfan, Enshi and Jingzhou have now also opened airlines to many cities in China.
There are 163 inland river ports in the Province, among which 2 are ports with capacity of 5 million-10million tons. The Wuhan Port Passenger Terminal is the largest inland river passenger station in China. The ports in Wuhan, Huangshi, Shashiand Lyichang have been opened to the outside world successively, the seagoing vessels of which can directly reach the rivers and seas in Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand and Malaysia, etc. The ports can be open to navigation to 130 countries through transfer shipping lines.
High ways
The highways underuse totals 89, 673 km, of which the express way is 1, 353 km. Jing-Zhu, Hu- Rong, Yi- Huang, Huang-Huang, and Wu-Shi Express way are arranged in a crisscross pattern linking large and medium-scale cities like Wuhan, Huangshi, Ezhou, Jingzhou, Yichang, Xiang fan and Shiyan ,and making the Jianghan Plain, East Hubei, Southeast Hubei and Northeast Hubei an integrate whole. The road network, the hub of transportation in central China, with Wuhan as the center reaches 8 provinces,195 cities and towns.
Railways Jing-Jiu, Jing-Guang, Jiao-Zhi and Zhi-Liu Railways run from the north to the south of the province; Wu-Da, Han-Dan and Xiang-Yu railways run from the east to the west.
Telecommunication and the Internet
Wuhan is the confluence of Beijing-Guangzhou coaxial cable and Nanjing-Chongqing optical cable, and boasts the modern communication network radiating to all corners of China. The total length of long-distance optical fable is 19, 847 km; the number of fixed telephone subscribers reaches12.36 million, and that of mobile phone subscribers 14.01 million. The coverage rate of telephone is 43.9 sets per 100 people. The number of Internet users is 3, 928, 000.
Finance and Insurance
By the end of 2005, there are 39financial institutions of various kinds in Hubei Province, with 7,951 business offices, and 105, 000 employees. At the end of 2005, the deposit balance of all the financial institutions in Hubei Province is RMB 818,496,000,000 Yuan.
By the end of 2005, there are 2,156business offices for insurance. There are95 professional agencies, and 3,504 part time agencies for insurance. The number of employees for insurance is 82,000. The total assets of the insurance industry is RMB 29.06 billion.
Foreign exchange
By 2005 , Hubei Province had established 51 pairs of friendship states(cities) with 23 countries such as the United States of America, France, etc., which have effectively promoted the opening course in Hubei Province.
International Exposition and Conferences
China International Machinery and Electronic Products Exposition (CWME for short)
CWME is a state-level, international and professional exposition, co-sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China, China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Shanxi Provincial People’s Government, Hunan Provincial People’s Government , Hub e I Provincial People’s Government, undertaken by Wuhan Municipal People’s Government, and co-supported by China Machinery Industry Union, China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products and the Export-import Bank of China. Since 2000 CWME has been crowned with success for the past six sessions. CWME has attracted about one thousand manufacturers from 50 more countries and regions, and 2,000more machinery and electronic enterprises in China and 200 more thousand professionals in Wuhan for negotiation and sharing of opportunities and achievement in trade and investment in the past six years.
Conference on Overseas Chinese Pioneering & Developing in China
Conference on Overseas Chinese Pioneering & Developing in China(COCPDC for short) is co-sponsored by Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, Hubei Provincial People’s Government and Wuhan Municipal People’s Government. With exchange, cooperation, business developing and development as the objects, the Conference aims at promoting the combination of technology and capital of overseas Chinese and mainland Chinese, helping the overseas Chinese to start their business, facilitating the exchange and cooperation of the foreign countries with Hubei Province, and realizing mutual development on the basis of reciprocity. The 5th Conference on Overseas Chinese Pioneering & Developing in China and the 3rd Hubeinees Fellowship were held in August 2005 in Wuhan. More than500 overseas Chinese, overseas Chinese businessmen and persons in charge of Hubeinees Fellowship attended the conference. 121 contracts were signed with the total investment of more than RMB 3billion, the contracted capital being RMB840 million, and there were 49 projects for introducing talents and technologies.
Higher Education and Scientific Research
There are 85 institutions of higher learning in Hubei Province. In 2005, there were 1,086,000 undergraduate students in Hubei Province.
In Hubei Province, there are more than 1,300 institutions of various kinds for research and development, 1 state lab,14 state key labs, 15 state engineering(technology) research centers, 14 state enterprise technology centers, 11 state high technology innovation centers, 1,130,000professional technicians, 52 academicians of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering.
In 2005, 717 scientific achievements of or above provincial level were obtained.
11, 131 technology contracts were signed, with the actual contracting sum of RMB5,018 million. It presided over 54 scientific and technological projects and 42 projects of“ 863” Program, as well as 22 State High-technology Development projects, with the total investment on the projects of RMB1,130 million.
Tourism
Places of interest
With beautiful scenery and many historical sites, Hubei Province is rich in tourism resources. The famous Three Gorges is the first in the list of top 10 famous places of interest. The East Lake, Wudang Mountain, Dahong Mountain, Longzhong and Jiugong Mountain are key places of interest of the state. Shennongjia, Wudang Mountain and Mausoleum of Ming Emperor are listed in “ Man and Nature Protection Zone Program” and“ World Cultural Heritage” by UNESCO. 80 chapters of the 120 chapters of the masterpiece “ Three Kingdoms” involve Hubei Province.
In 2005, the Province welcomed 77,125,700 tourists, with the revenue from tourism totaling RMB 47,315 million Yuanas the best in history.
Doing Business in Hubei Province of China:II.Economy
Doing Business in Hubei Province of China:III.Investment
Doing Business in Hubei Province of China:IV.Development Zones
