Xiamen, located in southeast China's coastal Fujian Province, faces the island of Taiwan across the sea. Covering 1,565 square km, it has a population of 1.27 million. With charming scenery and a pleasant climate, Xiamen is known as a garden city on the sea. It has developed into a modern port full of energy and opportunities, with a fast growing economy and good social order. Xiamen is an attraction for both domestic and overseas investors.

Once a famous trading port in history, Xiamen was made one of the four special economic zones in the early 1980s by the Central Government. Twenty years of construction has turned it from a small coastal city into an international metropolis, with its comprehensive economic strength ranking among the top in the country.

Xiamen's comprehensive economic might ranked among the top 10 cities nationwide in 1992. In 1998, the city's GDP registered 42 billion yuan, with the annual growth rate approaching or reaching 20 percent for 10 straight years, and its import and export volume totaled $7.5 billion, ranking sixth in China. Last year, Xiamen's per-capita GDP exceeded 30,000 yuan, sixth in the country.

Xiamen has always given priority to the construction of infrastructure facilities. It has spent 23.5 billion yuan in building an investment environment that has convenient transportation, advanced communications, complete facilities and efficient services.

Xiamen Port, with 16 deep-water berths, handled 16.4 million tons of goods in 1998, ranking among the top in the nation. The Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport is the seventh largest airport on China's mainland and has opened more than 60 domestic and international routes. The telephone penetration rate in the city is 56.3 percent, coming the second in the country. Convenient facilities enable the people in Xiamen to have quick connections with several hundred domestic cities and 210 countries and regions worldwide.

The excellent investment environment is attracting more and more investors. By the end of 1998, paid-in foreign investment had totaled US$9,125 billion, more than 4,000 joint ventures had been established, and 33 projects funded by 31 companies based in the United States, Germany, Japan and Sweden had started in Xiamen. About 82 percent of Xiamen's gross industrial output value came from these joint ventures.

Xiamen is a close neighbor of Taiwan separated only by a strip of water. The ancestral home of 70 percent of Taiwan residents is based in the city and the surrounding southern Fujian area. The solid blood relations, same language and similar customs have facilitated the frequent exchanges between the two sides of the Straits. Xiamen is playing a significant role in opening postal services, navigation and businesses across the Straits, as well as in realizing reunification of the motherland.

As the hometown of about 400,000 overseas Chinese, Xiamen has a special appeal for overseas investment. Aside from establishing special zones for Taiwan investors in Haicang, Xinglin and Jimei districts, Xiamen has held the country's only export commodities fair to Taiwan for three consecutive years. Of its more than 4,000 joint ventures, 40 percent are funded by Taiwan businesses.

The local authorities pay much attention to legislation. While implementing various State and provincial laws and regulations, it has formulated 53 local decrees to guide urban construction and protect the legitimate rights and interests of investors.

Xiamen places equal emphasis on economic development and environmental protection. After the National People's Congress entitled Xiamen legislative power in March 1994, the first special local law it promulgated was the Regulations on Environmental Protection. An enforcement examination has been carried out every year since then. Furthermore, the 96 motions and proposals on environmental protection put forth by the city's people's congress deputies and political consultative conference members have all been handled earnestly. All these efforts have effectively protected the city's beautiful landscape and brought it various honors, such as a national pacesetter in environmental protection, a clean city, a garden city and a model tourist city.

The Regulations on the Protection of Investment by Taiwan Compatriots is another show of Xiamen's effort to improve local investment environment.

Xiamen people welcome friends from all parts of the world to visit or invest in this warm coastal city.