Growing with Our Investors—Serving Investors in an All-round Way and Building a Beautiful TEDA (1995–1999) (Part I)

In the mid-to-late 1990s, TEDA seized the momentum when large multinational companies accelerated their investment in China, greatly utilizing foreign capital and enhancing its overall regional strength. To attract more multinational projects, TEDA put itself in the place of investors, continuously optimizing its services and urban construction. Since then excellent infrastructure and energy facilities had been built, winning the trust of investors.

Since its establishment in 1984, TEDA has prioritized environmental construction as a key factor in attracting investment. It innovatively proposed the advanced concept of creating a “simulated international investment environment,” gradually integrating the concept into regional development.

From “3 connections & 1 leveling” to “7 connections & 1 leveling” and eventually “9 connections & 1 leveling (road access, water supply, steam, gas, heating, drainage, post and telecommunications, broadband, and land levelling),” TEDA have gradually improved both soft and hard environments through courageous practices over more than a decade. This allowed TEDA to stand out among numerous development zones, attracting a series of multinational projects and injecting unprecedented vitality into industrial development. A golden era has come.

During this period, preferential policies for industrial parks became consistent across the country. An international-standard investment environment, especially comprehensive infrastructure, became a key factor in attracting foreign investment. Forward-thinking and innovative TEDA people broadened their focus from investment environment construction to overall environmental enhancement.

In May 1995, TEDA clearly stated, “The environment is the lifeline of the development zone; it is a matter of life and death.”

In January 1996, TEDA launched activities to optimize the investment environment, beautify the urban environment, and shape the human environment, emphasizing that “the environment is TEDA’s lifeline, and I am part of TEDA’s environment.” This highlighted the importance of people in environmental construction, urging every TEDA people to actively participate in environmental building and enterprise services.

In March 1997, TEDA released a ten-point plan for Environmental Year construction, establishing an Environmental Year Steering Committee to comprehensively enhance the legal, administrative, production, business, urban, and cultural environments. These initiatives have actively promote TEDA to go international.

Service is always a constant theme in TEDA’s development process. In the mid-to-late 1990s, TEDA saw qualitative improvements in industrial projects and scale. How to provide excellent services to large multinational companies and ensure their stay posed a new challenge for TEDA people. Exploring new ideas and measures, TEDA significantly reduced administrative fees to lighten the burden on enterprises.

In 1998, TEDA held a press conference to announce the elimination of over 200 types of fees, becoming an exemplar of alleviating corporate burden in Tianjin and beyond. TEDA once again led the way in reform and innovation.

In December 1998, TEDA established a Leadership Group for Business Operation Service to help enterprises solve operational problems, offering consultations from a government perspective and effectively assisting enterprises in overcoming practical difficulties.

In 1999, TEDA further improved its service mindset, listening more to investors, respecting their ideas, and considering everything for their convenience to provide efficient and high-quality services.

For instance, back in the day when Motorola’s two-way radios were not selling as well in north China as in the south, TEDA’s publicity department proactively organized sales activities. Within a week, Motorola held a product demonstration and a technical seminar in Tianjin, gaining favor from various users, including public security, port, shipping, railway, tourism and construction. Chen Xidan, then Director of Motorola’s Radio Division and General Manager of the Tianjin plant, expressed his gratitude, noting how TEDA’s publicity department helped spread their business philosophy and advanced technology to customers. “If we don’t produce here, where else can we go?” he remarked.

From proactively solving problems for customers to providing forward-looking services to empower enterprise development, TEDA thought about and addressed investor needs, achieving its own breakthroughs and growth while gaining their trust.

Winning investors’ recognition with preferential policies, excellent infrastructure, and considerate services was TEDA’s successful formula for attracting investment in the 1990s. Increasingly comprehensive urban amenities also played a crucial role in attracting foreign capital.

For long-term urban development, TEDA enhanced its urban planning, aligning not only the investment environment with international standards but also city construction and living amenities. During this period, TEDA’s urban development accelerated, with the establishment of the first supermarket, TEDA Bus Company, TEDA Bookstore, TEDA No.1 Secondary School, and TEDA No.1 Primary School, addressing education, shopping, and transportation needs of residents, employees and their family, and fulfilling people’s desire for a stable and happy life.

TEDA successfully held the first TEDA sports meet, the first TEDA Art Festival, etc., engaging enterprise employees and enriching their lives, demonstrating the city’s vitality and cohesion. This once-desolate saline wasteland burst with development potential.

TEDA was once considered a “forbidden zone” for green plants due to high soil salinity. However, with the courage to turn the impossible into reality, TEDA people created an ecological miracle. To further enhance the regional environment and create a livable urban setting, TEDA invested over 300 million yuan from 1996 to 1997 to improve the urban environment, establishing city parks like Taifeng Park, TEDA Youth Park, Sculpture Park.

With no fence or admission fee, Taifeng Park, a large landscape park built on saline land, set a precedent for national open parks. However, its construction, involving soil filling, foundation strengthening, lake digging, and planting, required substantial hard work. With perseverance, TEDA people created picturesque landscapes with sparse forests, gentle slopes and artificial lakes, giving TEDA its own “Central Park”.

By integrating a “pro-business” philosophy into every aspect of investor service and regional construction, TEDA made rapid achievement across the board. Since 1997, TEDA has led in key economic indicators and overall development among national development zones and ranked No.1 for 16 consecutive years. A new industrial city surrounded by green and booming economy is rising!