1. Rich culture
Nanjing, as a city, has a history of over 2470 years. 10 dynasties in history had Nanjing as their capital. Therefore, Nanjing is regarded as one of the four ancient capitals of China, together with Beijing, Xi’an and Luoyang. The famous history and culture has given the city rich and splendid historical heritage, which, integrated with the grand and beautiful natural scenery, formed the unique historical and cultural character of the city.

2. Sound human habitat
Nanjing is among the first group of cities in China to become the “excellent tourist destination” ”and the “national-level garden city” The per capita green area is 9.2 m_ and the ratio of green area to total area in urban Nanjing is as high as 42%, the highest among Chinese cities. The harmonious integration of mountains, rivers and lakes, the city and forests is the major character of Nanjing. The Yangtze River and Qinghuai River go through the city. Xuanwu Lake and Zijin Mountain constitute the Zhongshan Natural Scenery Site. The 23 km long ancient City Wall of Ming Dynasty, which has a history of more than 600 years, is the best preserved and most representative imperial city wall.

3. Good infrastructure
Nanjing has the first-class airport—the Lukou International Airport, which has opened over 80 international and domestic passenger and cargo air routes. The Nanjing Port has an annual handling capacity of over 60 million tons and container capacity has broken the line of 450,000 standard containers. It is the largest freshwater port in Asia. It has facilities for all five types of transportation: railway, road, water, air and pipeline. The city is connected to other major cities in China by railways and high-grade roads. All of those form a big-capacity transportation network which leads to almost everywhere. Program controlled telephone, mobile communication, micro-wave communication, optical fibre digital communication and broadband constitute the solid modern communications network of Nanjing, which is an important comprehensive transportation hub in China and an key communication hinge in East China

4. Rapid economic growth
IFrom 1995 to 2002, the city witnessed a steady growth of consumption, investment and export, with an annual average GDP growth rate of 12.2%, and an annual average industrial added value growth rate of 11.3%. The fixed asset investment in the whole society rose at an annual average rate of 14.5%. The annual average growth rates of major economic indicators are higher than national and provincial level. In 2002, GDP of the whole city was 129.5 billion yuan, fiscal revenue: 26.5 billion, industrial added value: 49.8 billion, and fixed asset investment in the whole society: 46.6 billion. Among the 15 sub-provincial-level cities, Nanjing ranked the second in terms of growth rate of fixed asset investment, the third in terms of local fiscal revenue, the fifth in terms of per capita GDP. At present, a comprehensive industrial system has come into being in Nanjing, in which electronic information, petrol chemistry and auto-making are the three pillars, and biological medicine, machinery, steel and iron metallurgy, food processing, textile and clothing, and new building materials are the six key industries. There are 36 industrial sectors, over 200 kinds of professions and more than 2,000 groups of products. It is an important comprehensive industrial base in East China Region.

5. Advanced science and technology and education
Nanjing ranks the third after Beijing and Shanghai in terms of education and scientific research level. It has 37 colleges and universities. The research strength of the universities, represented by Nanjing University and Southeast University, rank among the top around the country. There are 641 research institutions of various kinds in the city, among which over 100 are first-class research centers and laboratories according to national standard. Those institutions report more than 800 major research achievements each year, and apply for over 2,000 patents. We have 71 academicians with either the Chinese Academy of Sciences or the Chinese Academy of Engineering Sciences, 350,000 researchers, and 320,000 university students. The number of university students in every 10,000 people is 3.8 times the figure in Shanghai, 2.7 times the number in Beijing, and 1.3 times regarding Hangzhou. Every year 80,000 college graduates would begin to serve the society. They are the high quality human resources for the development of Nanjing.

6. Prosperous finance and business
Nanjing has a rather developed market and prosperous businesses and distribution network. Financial institutions are developing rapidly and are strongly influencing the surrounding area. All state-owned banks, national or local commercial banks have their branches here in Nanjing. There are more than 1,000 bank branches around the city. Commercial facilities are rather complete, and new professions and industries are developing quickly. We have over 80,000 commercial service companies and more than 600 markets. In 2002, the total consumption retail volume reached 52.6 billion yuan, ranking among the top 10 in the country, making the city one of the four financial, commercial and distribution centers along the Yangtze River basin.

7. Convenient and fast investment services
We are now carrying out the project of “general port clearance”to improve the efficiency of clearance of the port. The customs and commodity inspection authorities opened the green channel services for foreign investors; international air cargos to the Lukou Airport, or those transferred from the Shanghai Pudong Airport, will only have to go through declaration and examination once. The State has approved that the Nanjing port is entitled to issue landing visas of 48 hours. It is now applying for the right to issue 72-hour landing visas. The whole process of approval of foreign invested projects would be carried out by a single institution on behalf of the applicant, including project formulation, approval of contract and bylaws through to registration. The deadline of each process is clarified, and procedures are simplified to improve efficiency. We have also established intermediary and service organizations such as the foreign investor complaint center, hospitals for foreigners, international schools and lawyers to provide good services on all aspects for foreign investors.