Hope City: Business Card of Private Sectors of Economy

Translation/Peng Hui

On January 8, 1985, Jiefang Daily carried the headline: “The First Billion Yuan Township in the Suburbs of Shanghai, Malu Town Took a New Step in Economy Boom.” It was reported that the totalindustrial and agriculturaloutput of Malu town in 1983 and 1984 reached 106.1 million yuan and 108 million yuan respectively. In 1984, the profit taxes were over 14 million yuan.

Speaking of the history, Zhang Biao is one of the most qualified people. Although he is 90 years old now, he has been the leader for the Party and administration of Malu in the 1950s and in the early 1980s. In the 1990s, he has become the Chairman and General Manager of Shanghai Hope Economic City, the first private economic city in Jiading.

During the 40 years of reform and opening up, Zhang Biao has witnessed the development of private sectors of economy in Jiading, and even in the whole Shanghai.

Hope City’s Memonial Archway

Not afraid of minor criticism and embrace big praise

Several “exceptions” to Malu in the development of New China led to Malu becoming the first “100 million townships” in the country and the first privately-run economy city in Jiading.

In the early 1960s, people in Malu wanted to take the advantage of turning them into bigger one because those factories weren’t closed. Therefore, a batch of midget plants was set up to produce hardware and toys in Malu and developed in silence. In the 1970s, Malu seems to “go around” and has set up enterprises such as electric bead factories, chemical plants and etc. These industrial foundations laid an important basis for the rapid development of Malu in the early 1980s and the over 100 million yuan exceedance of gross production. “If you couldn’t develop in an open manner, then you could do it secretly.” In Zhang’s view, there was nothing wrong with exploring the development path according to its own circumstances. Only when you withhold the minor criticism can you make great progress and gain praise.

Undoubtedly, what Zhang expected was the award of the first “billion yuan township” for Malu.

The wall is full of his name

By the early 1990s, Malu seemed to have lost its glory. With the reform and opening-up, great achievement has been made in Guangdong and many coastal provinces. While the dilemma of “high debt, low output and low efficiency” appeared in the township enterprises and joint ventures in the suburbs of Shanghai.

In 1992, Zhang, who had already “retired from his office”, went to the Fumin Economic Zone in QingPu for inspection. It was the first economic zone based on the private economy that was just established in the city. Zhang returned to report to Yao Shunxing, the Party Secretary of Malu Township: “The private-owned economic city was a good model, and Malu could also make an attempt.” Malu began the start-up period of the private economic city. Difficult as it was, it was full of hope which was probably also the source of the name of Hope Economic City.

The start-up capital was only 500 thousand yuan. “We could only live on shoestring budget.” Zhang said. In the initial stage, a few employees could only get the salary of their original unit because we are low on money. They had to work on the third floor of the cooperative where there wasn’t a decent office or an electric fan. Everyone ate instant noodles because we could not provide a canteen for them. We spent 30,000 yuan to have wall advertisements painted in the suburbs of Shanghai which would be “eradicated” by the city management directly nowadays because we could not afford to advertise in newspapers. At that time, there were a lot of “Hope Economic City”advertisements, which were painted with my name on both sides of the wall of national highways, provincial highways, Zhang Biao said with a smile.

The Office Building of Hope City in Early Days

It was very impressive. In the same year, more than 80 enterprises ushered in the Hope City. Five years later, 2,630 private enterprises of various kinds were settled in Hope City with a total registered capital of 2.5 billion yuan. 54 of which were registered with the capital of more than 5 million yuan and 17 were registered with more than 10 million yuan. At that time, among more than 80 private development zones in Shanghai, Hope City won three firsts due to its largest construction scale, the maximum registered capital per household and the highest average taxes.

Development of the private enterprise

On the one hand, they accelerated the construction of the park’s hardware; on the other hand, they offered package service and set up “Merchants Office” to attract investment actively. Doing everything for the development of the private enterprises was their philosophy. In Hope City, as long as you were fully prepared for your application materials, you would get licenses quickly because the staff would handle it for you.

Zhang recalled a time when an owner sent a driver to get the relevant licenses. The driver was surprised at the good service and efficiency there. Soon, the driver’s children also came to the city to register for the enterprise. “As people who were responsible for attracting investment, our purpose was to serve the private owners well and help them develop their enterprises. Only by doing this could we help people realize their value and change their ideas.” Zhang said.

Plough on the fertile soil which were Full of Hope

Hope City had made innovation in planning from a blank sheet of paper to a picture full of content.

Oriental Hope Group, the largest private enterprise in the country at that time, has become the first one to show appreciation for the city. More than 10 million yuan in sales has been achieved when the enterprise went into operation that year. 27 million yuan output has been made in 1994. As a result, Zhang has got more energy and there was less gossip outside. Many well-known private enterprises were growing in the economic city following Hope Group, including Yonyou Software, New Century Venture Group, Ruihua Real Estate and etc. In 1997, Hope City Tax Payment exceeded 100 million yuan.

At the same time, Malu also grasped the opportunity to attract foreign capital. Between 1993 and 1994, a standard factory building of 0.2 million to 0.3 million square meters has been built, bringing in 69 foreign investment projects, with a contractual foreign capital of $130 million, accounted for 23% of the total amount of foreign investment in Jiading. By the end of 1998, there has been more than 200 foreign-funded enterprises in Malu, with a total investment of more than $500 million.

Today, 90-year-old Zhang still cares about the state affairs and the development of Malu. “I read more than a dozen newspapers and magazines every day, and I get to know the plans for building New Town in Jiading. Malu is facing new opportunities for development. I hope that Ma lu and Hope City will continue to work hard on the fertile soil of reform and opening up and are always in the forefront of the times. ” Zhang said.

Hope city, as Zhang hoped, was on its way to transform and develop. “This year we’ll celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of the city, and we have set the goal of transformation and development including three industries: comprehensive finance, health, and manufacturing. In the future, Financial Valley of our own will be built on the banks of Yuanxiang Lake. The Chinese medicine planting base will be planned in our vineyards. Enterprises with high-energy and low-output will be eliminated, which is called ‘vacate cages for birds’. The advanced manufacturing enterprises will be introduced...” Xu Xianjie, general manager of the city told the stories to the reporters.