Chengdu mayor hopes Fortune 500 firms set up in his city

Chengdu wants to attract more Fortune 500 companies to help it achieve at least one goal - the creation of jobs offering decent salaries.

Ge Honglin, mayor of the mainland's western financial capital, spoke to more than 100 chief executives and chairmen of Fortune 500 companies yesterday, the first day of the Fortune Global Forum, which Chengdu is hosting this year. About half of Fortune 500 firms have already set up businesses in the city.

He said the capital of Sichuan province faced increasing difficulty attracting foreign investment, partly owing to the growing reluctance by some foreign companies to move their businesses, and hence jobs, to China.

"Many big bosses of Fortune 500 companies nowadays do not like to talk about moving industries and businesses [to China], whenever I meet them," Ge, an engineer who became a politician, said in a panel discussion.

"But in fact I want them to make something new here, something like what Siemens has done in Chengdu," he said, referring to the research and innovation facility the German industrial giant had set up in the city of 14 million.

Ge did not elaborate on why a growing number of foreign companies were hesitating to move a part of their business, in particular manufacturing-related businesses, to the world's No 2 economy.

Industry analysts have blamed rising payroll and property costs for discouraging some foreign companies from selecting China as the base for their manufacturing operations.