Gives business people all the up-to-date information they need to take advantage of business opportunities in Shanghai and the rest of China's Yangtze River Delta.Not only is the Yangtze River Delta emerging as China's most powerful economic region, it has been blessed by Beijing's central government to lead China to world economic supremacy. This book reveals the awesome economic potential of the entire region, including Nanjing, Suzhou, Shanghai, and the entire delta. It covers the region's locational advantages, special economic zones, and dynamic real estate, tourism and banking sectors. It also presents the economic relevance of town and village enterprises, and specific case studies of large state-owned and joint-venture enterprises.This book is for all business people, investors, professionals and academics interested in an insider's view of doing business in the Yangtze River Delta in China. Gives business people all the up-to-date information they need to take advantage of business opportunities in Shanghai and the rest of China's Yangtze River Delta.Not only is the Yangtze River Delta emerging as China's most powerful economic region, it has been blessed by Beijing's central government to lead China to world economic supremacy. This book reveals the awesome economic potential of the entire region, including Nanjing, Suzhou, Shanghai, and the entire delta. It covers the region's locational advantages, special economic zones, and dynamic real estate, tourism and banking sectors. It also presents the economic relevance of town and village enterprises, and specific case studies of large state-owned and joint-venture enterprises.This book is for all business people, investors, professionals and academics interested in an insider's view of doing business in the Yangtze River Delta in China. From Chapter 1: Against a background of pockets of recession and low growth scenarios worldwide over the past several years, China's economy has been growing rapidly and consistently. In terms of purchasing power parity, China is now ranked as having the world's second largest economy after that of the U.S.A (International Monetary Fund, 1993; Randall and Telesio, 1995). Moreover, the dynamic Chinese economy is attracting the interest of investors from all over the world who are eager to participate in this giant emerging market. However, this economy is still in the throes of transforming from a centrally planned economy to that of a market-oriented system. This mixture of central planning plus a market mechanism overarching China's economy is puzzling to many foreign investors, and it creates some degree of uncertainty and risk for foreign investment projects. On the eve of economic reforms in 1978, China was one of the poorest economies in the world and she was clearly an insignificant participant in international markets for goods and capital. At the time, the opinion of world gurus leaned towards political reform as the strategic choice necessary to salvage an impoverished China. Ironically, the developed nations of the world has no proven economic formula for rescuing a nation with one billion two hundred million people from the depths of poverty. But Deng Xiaoping and other top Chinese leaders created a vision which placed economic reform ahead of political reform. Beijing harnessed its central control with one objective in mind - economic development aimed at world supremacy in the 21st century. Initially, China was faced with decentralising the fiscal system in both the rural and urban areas. The former was accomplished by returning the land to the farmers while the latter required working around the formidable burden of the state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Dismantling these giants would have meant utter chaos and the potential ruin of the entire country. Instead, Beijing concentrated on developing private and non-state-owned enterprise on a small-to-medium-sized scale. These entities were flexible, transparent and manageable. They required relatively small amounts of capital and could be initiated in the most favourable locations for trade such as along vital waterways and adjacent to coastal cities. Significantly, their turnover was rapid which led to increased cash flows, larger savings and more intensified new capital investments. With these decentralisation measures in place, the miracle started to happen.