Taiwan Compatriots in Pingtan: Shift of Starting Business from One Island to Another
After the weekend, Pingtan Island, Fujian Province, recovered from the turmoil of the mini tourist boom. Many of guests in the guesthouses in Beigang Village on the island have left. Liao Zhewei, sitting in the coffee house in the front courtyard of a guesthouse, is now free and at leisure compared to the hustle and bustle over the past few busy days. Taibei, across the strait outside the house, is his hometown he chose to temporarily leave.
In 2011, the State Council approved the establishment of the Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone; in 2015, the Pingtan Section of the Fujian Pilot Free Trade Zone was officially unveiled. Since then, the nearest island to Taiwan in Chinese mainland has welcomed a number of new and old Taiwan compatriots to settle in.
Liao Zhewei joined the B&B project in Beigang Village just six months ago. In 2016, the entrepreneurial team, named “Stones Can Sing” that consists of the equal number of young people from both sides of the Taiwan Strait, rented a stone house on Pingtan’s beach for ten years in a tenancy agreement, which serves as a guesthouse together with a coffee house. On top of that, the team also protects ancient village buildings and publicizes the project widely to welcome guests and their friends.
Liao Zhewei, who previously worked in a foreign company in Taipei, participated in the project with the help of his friends in 2017. He joked that he has turned from an “office worker” to a “peasant”.
According to Liao, the current teams from Taiwan in Beigang Village have gradually formed a settlement, which is packed with tourists at the peak of the tourist season. This boosts economic growth and promotes local culture. The entrepreneurship team plans to extend the model of combining homestay with ancient village protection to more places along the coast. At the same time, he also expects more Taiwanese to cross the strait and start business in Pingtan.
Located in the central part of the Pingtan Island, the Taiwan Pioneer Park, which covers an area of 86,000 square meters to house quite a few youth-led teams such as “Stones Can Sing”, became one of the cross-strait youth entrepreneurship bases approved by the State Council in 2016. Novel company names and modern office space make this ancient island full of youthful atmosphere.
Zongren Technology, which moved from Shenzhen to the base in 2016, is an integrated circuit design company founded by Taiwan entrepreneur Chen Mengbang. With 40 employees currently, the company’s output value for this year is estimated to be around 40 million yuan, both figures that are more than 4 times that achieved when it initially put down its roots. Zongren Technology is one of the companies of scale and strength in this park, with its products marketed to many regions of Chinese mainland as well as Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao.
Zhong Weixu, the company’s Operations Manager, said that Chen Mengbang came to the mainland together with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) in 2002 and since then has been working on the coast of Guangdong for a long time. The core technology of semiconductor design that Zongren Technology currently owns, and the cost of consumer electronics far below the industry level, coupled with advanced management experience that Chen Mengbang has brought TSMC’s to the team, contribute to the rapid growth of this newly-created company.
Zhong Weixu frankly said that Zongren Technology can only complete part of multiple process sections such as design, testing, and packaging involved in the semiconductor industry at the present stage, and looks forward to having the capability to build a full industrial chain in Pingtan in the future.
According to the staff of the Management Committee of Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone, Pingtan is currently focusing on building high-end technology companies and cultural and creative industrial bases. Individual subsidies for young Taiwanese and financial support for Taiwan-funded enterprises are the most critical factors for attracting them to “come to the island”. So, how to make them stay on the island for a long time is an issue that needs to be solved urgently in the future. For Taiwanese entrepreneurs, what matters most is that there are well-established supporting facilities for relevant industries. At present, all aspects of work have been linked to various departments of the Management Committee, and progress in construction and connection is gradually accelerating.
On the sand table of the Pingtan Planning Exhibition Hall, the profile of the future of the Cross-Sea Bridge and contiguous buildings under construction, plus the commercial sites and entertainment areas to be opened, has had an inkling of the matter.
