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Guangdong Special: Luogang district: A glimpse of future Guangdong capital

By Xu Xiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-10-22 07:58

A photographer shows interest in herbs at Guangzhou-based Xiangxue Pharmaceutical Co's botanic garden. Wang Jing / China Daily

Locals say that "if you want to see the future of Guangzhou - just take a look around Luogang district".

Evolving from a pioneering high-tech development area, Luogang was established as a district of Guangzhou in 2005 in the east of the city and at the nexus of the golden cities Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macao.

The 389-square-kilometer district has a population of 370,000.

Its pillar industries are fine chemicals, electronic information, biomedicine, food and drinks, metallurgy and processing, and automobiles and parts.

Industrial production contributes some to 80 percent of the district's GDP.

Local industries have moved up the industrial chain from simple processing and assembling to core production and R&D.

Among them is Guangdong Vtron Technologies Co.

Though small compared to many foreign giants, the company already leads in state-of-the-art visualization systems and solutions that provide an enhanced group communication with greater flexibility, connectivity and quality.

Today, nearly 4,000 Vtron-invested systems have been installed worldwide - in China, the United Arab Emirates, India, South Korea, Chile, Brazil, Angola, Russia, Norway and Indonesia - with steady annual revenue growth.

China's top officials including President Hu Jintao, National People's Congress Standing Committee Chairman Wu Bangguo and Premier Wen Jiabao have all paid visits to the Guangzhou-based company and delivered their optimistic views of its prospects.

Another surging Luogang company is Guangzhou Xiangxue Pharmaceutical Co.

After nearly 50 years of development, it has grown into a high-tech maker of medicine, health food and biopharmaceuticals.

Xiangxue is the largest producer of oral medicine in Southeast China.

The company makes 600 billion capsules annually and has been growing more than 30 percent a year.

It was ranked No 5 among the 100 Chinese companies with the most potential by Forbes magazine in 2005.

The company now has six production lines for a portfolio of products in more than 70 categories of capsules and tablets. Several are listed as protected traditional Chinese medicine.

Xiangxue's Shangqingyin cold tea was approved as one of the country's non-tangible cultural heritages by the State Council.

In 2007, the company collaborated with Cambridge and Tsinghua universities to establish a traditional Chinese medicine research institute.

This year, after a strict selection process, Xiangxue was named as the medicine supplier for the Guangzhou Asian Games.

(China Daily 10/22/2010 page14)