Nanjing Software: The New Brilliance of an Ancient City

The Silicon Valley of China

    "Aggressive annual targets, tri-annual macro-targets. Within this framework, Nanjing will soon lead the software industry of Jiangsu, the Yangtze River Delta, even the entire nation. Our target for 2011 is a sales revenue of RMB 100 billion in the software industry," states Huang Min, director general of Nanjing Science and Technology Bureau.

    Each year from 2008 to 2010, the Nanjing government committed at least RMB 1 billion to the software industry, a level of support that indicates how determined it is to make the software industry its hallmark. Huang Min admitted to this reporter, "This year is crucial to the city's 10-year software industry program. It will decide whether or not Nanjing can assume a leading position with respect to the other software centers."

    Among the 600 cities in China jostling for top spot, each has its strong points. Dalian, for instance, has locked focus on outsourced contracts from foreign businesses for years. Chengdu counts on not only its huge financial and manpower input, but also its considerable cultural and historical charms, which help make it a formidable competitor too. "Nanjing's software industry has taken advantage of the city's downtown area and outskirts to build software parks and software industrial bases," said Zheng Jiaqiang, deputy director general of Nanjing Science and Technology Bureau. He briefed us on this and other information. Nanjing, apart from its major software parks, has many software industrial zones called "bases" where over 90 percent of the city's software companies are settled. Each of them tends to specialize, but together they address a variety of applications including power grid automation, telecommunication, computer animation, ITS, IC design, outsourcing, informatization, Internet security and systems software.

    Founded in December 2000, the Jiangsu Software Park is within walking distance to the university area along famous Zhujiang Road. The well-known Jiangsu IT Human Resources Service Center is right within it, and many high-profile brands, like Linkage Technology Co., Ltd., Oracle and Sinosoft Technology, call this park home.

    The Nanjing Software Park, located in Nanjing Hi-tech Development Zone on the northern bank of the Yangtze River, was approved in 2007 by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television to be a national computer animation industrial base. Well-known domestic and international animation companies, such as Nanjing Hongying Anime Entertainment Co., Ltd, Blue & White Multimedia Software, and SNDA, are in this zone. On the more process-control side of the industry, electric power systems software, network security information, and systems software are emerging as leading specialties of the Nanjing Software Park. Now, a group of backbone enterprises, such as NARI, Linkage, XWTECH, Nandasoft, make up one third of the nation's software market in the telecommunications and electric power sectors.

    The city development plan calls for the Yangtze River tunnel to be completed between the First Yangtze Bridge and the Third Yangtze Bridge by June 2010, which will greatly improve the transportation around the city and to the parks.

    Jiangning Base houses many big-name enterprises too. Located in the southern tip of Nanjing City, right on the road to Nanjing International Airport, the base serves the electric automation industry. One cannot talk about Nari-Relays Electric Co., Ltd. without mentioning the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games. Its products guaranteed a steady supply of electricity for the grand occasion. Apart from the 08/08 spectacle, its products were reliably servicing a dozen or more Olympic venues. Its protective relays have the fastest response in the world, and currently control 40 percent of the Chinese market.

    The three giants in China's telecom software industry, ZTE, Huawei and Potevio, have established their branch offices in Yuhua Software Park, on the southern tip of downtown Nanjing. Close to what will be the largest railway station in Asia, it is also just 20 minutes drive from the international airport. Yang Changsheng, leader of the park administration, is confident of the park's future progress. A large number of software service outsourcing enterprises have settled here. In 2009, their combined sales are expected to reach RMB 20 billion, bringing tax of RMB 900 million.

    The Xuzhuang Software Base in Xuanwu District houses many IC design companies and is considered an ideal place for small and medium-size companies to grow. The Gulou Software Base and Jiangdong Software City house big international names like Alcatel-Lucent and Emerson.

    The following statistics testify to the growing strength of the software industry in Nanjing. In 2000, software companies numbered about 200, with annual sales revenue hitting RMB 1.8 billion. By the end of 2008, the number of software companies had increased to 1,200, with annual sales revenue up to RMB 47.196 billion, averaging RMB 530,000 per capita. Their sales revenue amounted to half of the total software sales revenue in Jiangsu Province, bringing in US $800 million from exports.