Fosun plans Sichuan trade centre

Fosun International says it will soon announce details of the development of a trade and logistics centre in Sichuan province - its latest property investment following its adoption of a new business strategy.

The strategy was initiated in the wake of the central government's urbanisation drive, Fosun chief executive Liang Xinjun said.

"Urbanisation is a major highlight of the central government and a major driver of the nation's economic growth," he said. "Such a plan triggers concern if it will increase the financial burden for local governments. That creates business opportunities for us."

Liang said Fosun had adopted a business model that sought to help city governments push ahead with urbanisation and create job opportunities instead of the traditional model of buying a site and building a project for sale. That would help the company get the projects more easily and pay less for land, he said.

Each mainland city had different functions and different needs, subject to its resources, Liang said.

Beijing announced this month a long-awaited urbanisation plan aimed at bringing some 85 million rural people into cities by 2020. In a move to ease the burden on local governments, the Ministry of Finance will allow them to borrow moderately, in accordance with the law, and promote public-private partnership to attract private capital for urban infrastructure construction.

The trading and logistics centre is one of the concepts Fosun is developing in second- and third-tier cities on the mainland.

Liang said the Sichuan project would be the second trade and logistics centre under the Tianmiao City brand and could be similar in scale to the first one, in Hubei province.

According to mainland media reports, total investment in the Hubei project could be as much as six billion yuan (HK$7.5 billion) and the project would have a total gross floor area of 1.5 million square metres, with the first phase, providing 380,000 square metres, to be opened in June.

Apart from logistics, Fosun also invests in hotel and commercial developments. Last year, it co-operated with Kerzner International to develop the Atlantis Sanya resort in the coastal city of Sanya, in Hainan province.