Chongqing is a huge city on the Yangtze river. The new Three Gorges Dam has opened the city to larger ships, greatly improving its value as a manufacturing and commerce center. It's in the center of China, which is far to the west of the current main commerce areas on the coast.
Within the OPS organization we are trying to get our hands around how quickly to move north and west. Our traditional area of strength has been in and around Guangdong province near Hong Kong. However, costs and government incentives are making the western areas much more attractive as manufacturing options.
A focus of the Chinese government's current 5-year plan is a push to improve living standards in the west. They've implemented tax and regulatory incentives for companies to locate in or move to western areas. Pushing growth in the western areas makes excellent sense to me.
The downside with us moving west is the lack of skilled labor and infrastructure issues. Both are improving. I am pushing to have us move north and west quickly.
Chengdu is a smaller city just west of Chongqing. Inc.com recently hyped Chengdu as a "new global hot spot" for buinesses. Intel has a large operation there.
I'm sure I'll be writing more on our decisions on going north and west.
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