Economy
Changchun achieved a GDP of RMB332.9 billion in 2010, representing a rise of 15.3% year on year. Primary industry output increased by 3.3 percent to RMB25.27 billion. Secondary industry output experienced an increase of 19.0 percent, reaching RMB171.99 billion, while the tertiary industry output increased 12.6 percent to RMB135.64 billion.
The city’s leading industries are foodstuffs, photoelectronic information, biology and medicine, and automotive. Changchun is the largest automobile manufacturing base in China, producing 9% of the country's automobiles in 2009. As cradle of the auto industry, and home to FAW, China’s biggest vehicle producer, one of Changchun’s better known nicknames is "China's Detroit".
Changchun is increasingly faced with competition from nearby cities, seeing its dominance of the northeast as a regional industrial powerhouse diminish as other nearby cities continue to narrow the gap.
Foreign direct investment in the city was US$640 million, up 10.1% year on year. However, investors still need to be convinced. iN 2004 Coca-Cola set up a bottling plant in the city’s ETDZ in 2004 with an investment of US$20 million.
Changchun is an important transportation and communication hub of Northeast China - it is situated as the Northeast Asia's geometric center. South Liaodong peninsula coastline, north to Russia and Eastern Europe, east to North Korea, South Korea, Russia, and west to Mongolia.
Changchun's main industry is the manufacturing of transportation facilities and machinery. It produces 50 percent of passenger trains (see Changchun Railway Vehicles), and 10 percent of tractors made in China.
Changchun is the largest automobile research and development center in China. The first Chinese truck and car was made in Changchun. FAW (First Automotive Works) Group is based in Changchun. The automaker's factories and associated housing and services occupies a substantial portion of the city's southwest end. Specific brands produced in Changchun includes the Red Flag luxury brand, as well as joint ventures with Audi, Volkswagen, and Toyota. In 2009, FAW sold 1.94 million units of auto, up 26.9% year on year.
The GDP per capita was ¥43,936 (ca. US$6,635) in 2010, ranked no. 59 among 659 Chinese cities.
Changchun hosts the yearly Changchun International Automobile Fair, Changchun Film Festival, Changchun Agricultural Fair, Education Exhibition and the Sculpture Exhibition.
Other large companies in Changchun are Yatai Group, a major conglomerate involved in wide range of industries and Jilin Grain Group, a major processor of grains.
Read more about this topic: Changchun
Famous quotes containing the word economy:
“The counting-room maxims liberally expounded are laws of the Universe. The merchant’s economy is a coarse symbol of the soul’s economy. It is, to spend for power, and not for pleasure.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The basis of political economy is non-interference. The only safe rule is found in the self-adjusting meter of demand and supply. Do not legislate. Meddle, and you snap the sinews with your sumptuary laws.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Cities need old buildings so badly it is probably impossible for vigorous streets and districts to grow without them.... for really new ideas of any kind—no matter how ultimately profitable or otherwise successful some of them might prove to be—there is no leeway for such chancy trial, error and experimentation in the high-overhead economy of new construction. Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.”
—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)