The ever improving investment climate is turning the Guangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone into a hot spot for investors.

The zone signed contracts yesterday for another 33 investment projects, which included deals with French-based Total Group, Germany's Bayer and DuPont from the United States, all of which are leading transnational enterprises. Also yesterday, a giant electronic project broke ground in the zone.

The 33 projects involve a total investment of US$762 million. Thirty of them are foreign-invested ventures, two are private high-tech projects and the other will be run by a Chinese scholar who is based overseas.

The projects are related to biological medicines, building materials, electronics and telecommunications, metal processing, automobile components and chemical fibers, among others.

The project that broke ground yesterday belongs to Sony Electronics Huanan Co Ltd, which is solely invested in by Sony, the globally renowned Japanese electronics giant.

Involving a capital input of US$30 million, Sony's new facility is expected to be up and running early next year.

The facility will become one of Sony's key research and development (R&D) centers in China, specializing in the R&D of electronic products for the local market.

It will also specialize in the production of digital video disc players and be responsible for purchasing spare parts for Sony's global production.

"The growing number of new investments indicates investors' confidence in the zone and it speaks volumes for the fact that our efforts to improve the investment climate are paying off," noted Ling Weixian, director-general of the zone's administrative committee.

While upgrading infrastructure, the administrative committee has taken great strides to improve the administrative efficiency and services, as well as to keep the administrative quality on par with international standards.

Last year, the committee was bestowed the ISO9001 certificate for its administrative quality of service and the ISO149000 certificate for its environmental management program.

The zone has so far secured 579 industrial investment projects and 83 of the world's top 500 enterprises have invested there, a source said.

The zone witnessed strong development momentum in the first quarter of 2004.

It secured 47 foreign-funded enterprises and 11 existing projects increased their capital inputs in the first three months, with their total investment reaching US$407 million, a growth of 73.93 percent from a year ago, official statistics reveal.

(China Daily April 7, 2004)