Economic Advantages

After nearly 50 years of construction and development, Inner Mongolia has formulated a fairly complete system of industrial, agricultural, animal husbandry and national economy and become an important base of energy and raw materials of the State. In terms of economic development and business introduction, we have the following 8 major advantages.

Advantages in Coal and Power Industry

We have a demonstrated coal deposit of 218.6 billion tons with an estimated long-term deposit of over 1000 billion tons which ranks the 2nd in China . there are 15 large coal mines with an output of 5-10 billion tons in our Region, most of which are simple in structure, stable in rakes, large in depth, shallow in location and easy to conduct open mining. Of the 5 large open pits under the construction of and to be opened by the State,4 of them are in our Region: Yiminhe Coal Mine, Huolinhe Coal Mine, Yuanbaoshan Coal Mine, and Zhunger Coal Mine. The rich resources in coal and water have provided quite advantageous conditions for the development of power industry and therefore our Region has been listed by the State as a major base for development of power energy.

Advantages in Steel and Nonferrous Metals Industries

We have 62 mines of iron ores with a deposit of 1.7 billion tons, ranking the 9th in China . We have demonstrated nonferrous metals in over 40 varieties which are good in metallurgical conditions, rich in type of ore deposit and great in potential for development. Of them, lead, tin and zinc rank among the top 5 in our country in deposit; copper, wolfram and molybdenum rank the 7th and 10th respectively; niobum ranks the 1st in China and the 2nd in the world; chrome the 2nd in China; berylium, tantalum and zirconium the 1st in the world with considerable deposits of gold, silver, platinum, manganese, nickle and aluminums. Advantages in Rare Earth Industries: our demonstrated deposits of rare earth takes up 97% of that of China ,80% of the world and rank the 1st in the latter. Its main origin is in Baotou , called "home town of rare earth". It has increasing applications in metallurgy, magnetic materials, electronics, textiles, chemicals, glass and porcelain industries with great potential for further development.

Advantages in Building Material Industries

We have more than 30 kinds of non-metallic minerals. Our demonstrated deposits of gypsum and fluorspar rank the 2nd in China, with rich deposits of such quality natural building materials as silica, marble, mica and as best which have bright prospects for mining. We also have many advantages in such chemical materials as coal, oil and lake salt: we have a wide distribution of coal mines whose deposits and oil and gas rank the 2nd in our country in terms of area of their sedimentation basins. Of the 13 large oil gas fields, the long-term deposit of oil is as much as 2-3 billion tons with the highest deposit of gas at 1000 billion cubic meters. We have 12 kinds of chemical raw materials of minerals such as pyrite, phosphorus, lake salt, trona, reussin, bromine and turf, with pyrite ranking the 2nd in China and salt, Rona and reusing the 1st in China . In 1995 we have turned out 64.26 million tons of crude coal, 1.76 million tons of crude oil,1.08 million tons of crude salt and 125000 tons of caustic soda with great potential for further development of chemical industry.

Advantages in Agriculture and Animal Husbandry

Agriculture takes an important position in the economy of Inner Mongolia and we have a farm land of 5.31 million hectares, of which 1.77 million hectares is irrigated land. Besides the present farm land, we also have 6 million hectares of land fit for farm production. Our main crops are: wheat, maize, rice, soyabeans and potatoes with oilseed plants and beets as the main industrial crops. The cultivated area is mainly distributed in the River Bend Plain and Tumochuan Plain in the south of Yinshan Range , and the brents in the south of the Big Xingan Mountain Range. These areas are flat in topography and have for the main part black soil, chernozen, chestnut soil, meadow soil and alluvial soil which are good for the growth of crops and easy for irrigation with ample sunshine and heat. We have a crisscrossing network of rivers and lakes in the number of thousands and the total water surface of 984300 hectares, of which the usable fresh water (surface and ground water surface) takes up 50.9 billion cubic meters with 2230 cubic meters per capita, ranking the 14th in China . The rich water resources have not only provided fine conditions for farm irrigation and hydraulic power generation, but also broad prospects for the development of aquaculture. The animal husbandry has the grassland grazing for its main part and is the traditional strong sector of Inner Mongolia with a pasture land in the area of 87 million hectares, taking up one third of that of the whole country and ranking the 1st among the 5 largest ones of the country with 68 million hectares of usable pasture land. There are 6 famous large grasslands as Hulunbeir, Xilinguole, Kerqin, Wulanchabu, Erdos and Wulate Grasslands with rich animal husbandry resources and such fine species as Sanhe Cow, Sanhe Horse, Grassland Red Cow, Ujimqin horse, Ujimqin Big-tail sheep, Aohan Fine Wool Sheep, Inner Mongolia Fine Wool Sheep, Erdos Fine Wool Sheep, Arbas White Goat, Erlangshan white Goat and Arlashan Camel.

Advantages in International Trade

Along our border line in the length of 4200 kms, there are 18 ports of various sizes, including 12 Grade One Ports and 6 Grade Two Ports . Manzhouli and Erenhot, the two largest land ports of China , are located in Inner Mongolia . All this is quite advantageous for the development of international trade. Advantages in Tourism: Inner Mongolia has 5 major tourist attractions: natural pasture, primeval forest, desert, beautiful lakes and various places of interest. We also have wrestling, horse-racing, and Mongolian Horseback Troupe performances, all of which will surely appeal to thousands of tourists.

Advantages in Traffic and Communications

Railway: Inner Mongolia has 14 national trunk-lines, 12 national branch lines and 5 local railway lines with a total mileage of 125000 kms with 2 international railway lines of Harbin-Manzhouli Line and Jining- Erenhot Line. Harbin-Manzhouli Line is connected to Siberian Line at Manzhouli. Jining-Erenhot Line is connected to Mongolian railway lines at Erenhot. These two are among the mainland passages of China . For domestic trunk lines, we have Beijing-Baotou Line, Baotou-Lanzhou Line,Beijing-Tongliao Line,Jining-Tongliao Line,Tongliao-Huolinhe Line, Baotou-Shenmu Line, and Feng-Zhunger Line. Baotou-Lanzhou Line is connected to Lanzhou-Xinjiang railways at Lanzhou where it is further connected to the Asia-Europe Land Bridge and is another main land passage from China to Europe . Beijing-Baotou Line is connected in the east to Datong-Pucheng Line and Datong-Qinhuangdao Line at Datong and in the west to Baotou-Lanzhou Line at Baotou , thus offering an important passage from the western inland provinces to the eastern coast. Beijing-Tongliao Line is connected in the east to northeast railway network at Tongliao and in the west to Beijing-Baotou Line and Baotou-Lanzhou Line at Beijing , thus offering a link between the northeast, north and northwest of China . Jining-Tongliao Line has a mileage of 943 kms and is the longest local line in China , linking up 4 prefectures or large cities, 13 counties and began operation on Dec 1, 1995 .

Highway and Water Carriage:Our highway transportation is based on cities with bus services in all the counties and has a total mileage of 43000 kiss-off which the graded highways reach 34000 kms. The Huhhot- Baotou Expressway with a length of 146 kms was put into operation in 1996 and we also have 6 lines of international bus services to Mongolia and Russia . No.110, 111,208,209 and 210 National Highways cross our Region and are connected to the other national highways. Besides, in terms of water carriage, there is an inland water passage in the length of 600 kms in the Yellow River in our Region. Air Transportation: Inner Mongolia has 7 civil airports with over 30 air passages. Huhhot Airport can accept the departure and arrival of such planes as MD-82, BAE-146 and Boeing-737 around the clock. In our Region we have air transportation services in 6 perfectures or cities with direct air passages to all the large or medium-sized cities of the country, Hong Kong , Ulan Bator in Mongolia and Chita in Russia . Post and Telecommunications: the post and tele communications network of our Region is in a position to provide the international and domestic services in this line in many varieties, including: telephone, cable, fax, mobile phone, paging services, digital communications, satellite communications, and information services. At present, we have a network of optical fibre transmissions trunks in the length of 10015 kms,1346 kms of digital microwave trunks and 19000 lines of long-distance calls with 68000 terminals for exchange capacity. The total capacity of telephone exchange network of our Region is 1.07 million gates with the number of telephone sets reaching 856000 at the popularization rate of 3.79%. Mobile phone services are available at the capitals of the perfectures, cities and 36 counties with paging facilities in the cities above the level of county which has entered the Region's and State's network and have computer-programmed telephone exchanges and digital long-distance transmmission. Packet exchange and digital data network have become available to the capitals of perfectures, cities and some counties. The telecommunication network has basically changed from the manual mode to the automatic mode, and from the analogue mode to the digital mode. The rural automation of exchange has reached 80%. The rate of telephone communication has reached 97.3% for the towns and 21% for the villages in our Region.

Post: computer-controlled operations in post services are available in the cities above the level of counties inclusive with high speed, large dispatch capacity and more services. We have already opened up 8 express bus mail service lines to Beijing and some other cities and courier services to all over the world.

Ports:Along our border line of 4200 kms, we have opened 18 ports of various sizes which have become the economic passages between China and Mongolia , and China and Russia . They include 2 Grade One Railway Ports , 5 Grade One Highway Ports ,2 Grade One Water Carriage Ports ,2 Grade One Airports , and 5 Grade Two Highway Ports , and 2 Grade Two Water Carriage Ports .

Cost of Water, Power, Land and Labour

Industrial Water: in the case of running water, the cost is lower in the eastern part of our Region, higher in the western part with medium level in Huhhot and Baotou . The reference prices are: RMB0.8/MT for the area to the east of Chifeng, RMB1.5/MT for Xilinguole and Wulanchabu Perfecture and the area to the west of Bayannaoer Perfecture and RMB1/MT for Huhhot and Baotou . In the case of drilling wells on one's own, a "Water Resources Fee" will be charged. Industrial Power: the cost is RMB0.34/KWH for the western network and higher in the eastern part of our Region.

Land Usage

The cost varies with different areas for long-term usage, between industrial and commercial usage which is higher than the former. For urban land, the cost of commercial usage in Huhhot is RMB3800-3900 per square meter and RMB400-500 per square meter for industrial usage whereas the cost in Baotou is lower than in Huhhot by one third. The cost of commercial usage in the capitals of various prefectures is RMB500-600 per square meter and RMB200-300 per square meter for industrial usage. The cost for commercial usage in the capitals of various counties is RMB300-400 per square meter, and RMB150 per square meter for industrial usage. For suburban and other areas, in Huhhot the cost of close suburb is RMB21000/mu,the cost of intermediate suburb is RMB12000/mu,and RMB4000/mu for the outer skirts. In Baotou vegetable field will cost RMB20000-70000/mu, RMB25000-40000/mu for the irrigated land and RMB15000-25000/mu for dry land. In Chifeng vegetable field will cost RMB50000-100000/mu & RMB20000-40000/mu for the irrigated land. In Hailarr Hulunbeir Perfecture, the cost of vegetable field is RMB200000/mu and RMB10-24 million/mu for the cultivated land.In Jining Wulanchabu Perfecture, the cost of vegetable field is RMB10000- 20000/mu and RMB6000-20000/mu for the cultivated land. In case of usage of land, the users will have to pay, besides the above prices, a Tax of Occupation of Cultivated Land and Development Funds which are equivalent to 25% of the land prices. In case of compliance with the Region's industrial orientation and the Preferential Policies for the Encouragement of Foreign Investment, the actual cost will be lower than the above prices.

Labour

The average monthly salary per capita in our Region is RMB400 and in some cases with subsidies in medical care, labour protection, schooling, and usage for water, power and housing. Talent and Labour Forces:since the adoption of the policy of reform and opening to the outside world, we have made great achievements in the training and development of human resources with a certain quantity and improvement of talent. Since 1990, large numbers of people with fine moral integrity and professional expertise have taken up leading positions. In our Region, nearly 500 people were promoted to the position of administrators or prefectures or directors of Departments with 3000 people assuming the positions of magistrates of counties and bureaus. We have an increasing number of entrepreneurs who are conversant with economic activities and management and a rising number of personnel who have obtained various titles of honor from the State and the Region. There is also an increasing number of professional and technical personnel with 468000 of them working at various posts. We have such personnel in the average number of 205 in 10000 people.173000 of such personnel are university graduates, taking 37% of the total number. There are 116000 of such personnel who have obtained Professional and Technical Titles in the senior, medium and primary grades, of whom the holders of senior professional titles are in the number of 16400. Such personnel have great advantages in capability, AND some of whom have made remarkable achievements in industrial, agricultural and animal husbandry production as outstanding technicians and the others are famous scholars and leading specialists in the frontier science and technology of advanced world level. The scientific and technical personnel have made especially sophisticated discoveries in the aspects of animal husbandry, power, coal, iron and steel, forestry, foodstuff and woolen industries.

Inner Mongolia has rich labour resources in the total number of 15.4 million people with only 10.35 million in employment at the rate of 67%. The surplus 5 million people include both the urban young people who have received training in professional technology and those in the rural and pastoral areas who have good health and some education. So the rich labour resources constitute one of the major features of Inner Mongolia 's investment environment.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　[Origin:Inner Mongolia Government Website]