Shantou City is located in the southeast of Guangdong province and adjacent to South Sea. The total area is 2,064 square kilometers and the overall population is 4,685,000. Nowadays Shantou is an important seaport-city in southern China.

1. General Survey of Economic Development
Shantou has taken advantage of Special Economic Zone and hometown of oversea Chinese, which has greatly promoted local economic development. In 2003, the city's GDP reached 52.62 billion Yuan, up by 8.8% over the previous year. The total output value of industry was 92.51 billion Yuan, up by 10.1%. The total value of foreign trade was US$3.35 billion, up by 15.8% over 2002, which included foreign export value of US$1.89 billion, 20.6% more than that of 2002. The contracted foreign investment totaled US$0.99 billion, increased by a big margin; the foreign capital actually put in place was US$0.2 billion, up by 27.3%.

2. Unique Advantages and Development Characteristics
(1) Complete Fundamental Facilities. Shantou has basically formed modern and three-dimensional (sea, land and air) transportation and communication network. Shantou seaport belongs to the first-class national ports, and one of 20 major hinge ports. Guang-Mei-Shan Railway is connected to national railway net. National Road 324 and 206 go through Shantou and lead the city to various parts of the country. Expressway has connected the three SEZs (Shenzhen, Shantou and AMoy) together. The Annual transportation capacity of Shantou Airport amounts to 3,000,000.

(2) High developed Service System. As a SEZ, Shantou simplifies procedures for those investment projects within Shantou's management right, and sets up an effective one-station service in Shantou's Investment Management Service Centre. Customs speed ranks 4th in China and 2nd in Guangdong province.

(3) Industrial Development Has Formed Sizeable Scale. Agriculture has formed six polar industries, including grain, vegetable, poultry, aquiculture, fruit and tea and flower. Industry has forming many core industries including ultrasonic electrics, weaving and clothing, petrochemical, machine, food, pharmaceuticals, printing and packing and toys.