I. Overview:
In 2010, the State Council approved the construction of the cross-strait regional financial service center in Xiamen. In March 2011, the construction of Xiamen Cross-strait Regional Financial Center was written into the outline of the National 12th Five-Year Plan and became a national strategy. In the 14th Five-Year Plan of Xiamen and the proposal of the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035, it is specified to build a regional financial center that serves both sides of the Taiwan Strait and also Southeast Asia, connects the Maritime Silk Road, and is opened to the globe, as well as an important headquarters economy cluster on the southeast coast that brings together the headquarters of enterprise groups and investment centers, R&D centers, financial centers and settlement centers, etc.
The Cross-Strait Regional Financial Center serves as an important window for Xiamen Special Economic Zone to implement comprehensive supporting reforms, deepen cross-strait exchanges and cooperation and give full rein to the pioneering role in cross-strait relations. It is also an important platform for building a demonstration city of innovative, coordinated, green, open, and shared development, building a cross-strait exchange window city, and implementing the bay city strategy.
(I) Area Orientation
For the purpose of implementing the decision and arrangement of the CPC Central Committee, Xiamen has planned a 22.8-sq.km Cross-strait Regional Financial Center Area in the east of Xiamen Island as a specific space carrier of the financial center. It borders Huandao Road on the east, the Conference & Exhibition Center on the south, Yunding Road on the west and Wuyuan Bay on the north, and spans two administrative districts of Siming and Huli.
Featured with finance, high-end service, headquarters office functions and tourism and exhibition, the Area will be built into a modern and international financial cluster, high-end business office area and new urban area in the eastern part of the island with high quality development and sound ecological conservation.
(II) Spatial Layout
The Area comprises one core, two belts and five clusters in spatial layout.
One Core: Wutong High-end Business District
With a total planned coverage area of 4.4 sq.km and a gross floor area of 7 million sqm, Wutong High-end Business District is composed of four parts: Wutong Financial Business District Phase I (Cluster A), Phase II (core start-up area) and Phase III. It has attracted BRICS PartNIR Innovation Headquarters, Xiamen Airlines headquarters, GM,Jinyuan Group headquarters, Xiamen Bank headquarters, Xiamen Airlines Headquarters ,Bank of Ganzhou regional headquarters, Zhongqiao Sports Headquarters ,showing a prominent clustering effect of well-known financial institutions and large enterprises.
Two belts: financial and high-end business office belt, coastal tourism belt around the island
Financial and high-end business office belt: Qianpu Conference & Exhibition Cluster, Guanyinshan Business Cluster, Wutong High-end Business District and Wuyuan Bay Business Operation Center are distributed along Huandao Road and spread from south to north, forming a belt of front-line business offices with pleasant sea view.
Coastal tourism belt around the island: A belt of tourism and leisure functional areas is formed along the eastern coastline of the island, providing tourism, sightseeing and leisure services for the area and the city. There have been a number of tourism and leisure projects completed, including Cross-strait Tourism Service Center, Xiamen-Jinmen Wutong Terminal, Guanyin Mountain Coastal Tourism Zone, and Light House Park. This belt has now become the "golden coast" for sightseeing and tourism in Xiamen.
Five clusters
Qianpu Conference & Exhibition Cluster: It has a total planned coverage area of about 2.7 sq.km and is expected to become a high-end financial and commercial zone for financial enterprises, regulatory agencies and the modern conference & exhibition industry.
Guanyinshan Business Cluster: It has a total planned coverage area of 2.1 sq.km and will be built into a concentration zone of corporate headquarters with well-established supporting facilities and a beautiful environment.
Software Park Cluster: With a coverage area of about 2.3 sq.km, it is primarily designed as a software information industrial park and featured with a highlighted layout of software research and development, big data, block chain, artificial intelligence, information security, animation design, financial technology and other sectors.
Wuyuan Bay Big Health Cluster: With a total coverage area of about 5 sq.km, it is primarily designed for tourism and culture, medical and health care, sports and leisure industries.
Lakeside Ecological Living Cluster: It has a total planned coverage area of 3.7 sq.km, including a water surface area of 1.03 sq.km. It is designed as an urban complex zone primarily for high-end ecological residences and secondarily for commercial and financial facilities.
II. Characteristics and Construction Achievements of the Area
(I) Financial gathering area
The Cross-strait Regional Financial Center Area has a concentration of financial industries and provides favorable financial policies, with significant cross-strait characteristics. It has attracted the settlement of the People's Bank of China Xiamen Central Sub-branch, Jinyuan Group, Xiamen International Trust, Xiamen Venture Capital, national "XiYiDai" platform, Cross-Strait Equity Exchange, China Merchants Bank, Huaxia Bank, Ping An Bank, China Export & Credit Insurance, New China Life Insurance, Industrial Securities, Ruida Futures, CCIG, Sequoia Fashion Technology Fund, Hillhouse Ruiqi Fund, baigebao.com, as well as the cross-strait joint ventures Jinyuan President Securities Co,. Ltd., JMX Consumer Finance Co., Ltd., Xiamen Bank, Golden Trust Sinopac Fund Management Co., Ltd., King Dragon Life Insurance, Fubon Property & Casualty Insurance, and other financial management institutions, banks, securities, insurance, futures, funds and platforms. The Goodstone Fund Town and Xiamen Financial Technology Industrial Park within the Area have become the distinctive financial investment promotion platform of Xiamen.
(1) Goodstone Fund Town
Located at Xiamen Airlines Goodstone Art Business Center, this project is the first municipal fund town in Xiamen jointly built by Xiamen Financial Supervision Bureau, Management Committee of Xiamen Area of China (Fujian) Pilot Free Trade Zone and Huli District government. It is also the only fund gathering place in Xiamen with the superimposed effect of support policies for private equity investment funds and private securities investment funds. It lies in the heart of Xiamen Cross-strait Regional Financial Center Area in a coverage area of 23,000 sqm, and enjoys convenient traffic and well-established supporting facilities. There is public business service space available for the fund industry, where fund enterprises can benefit from a package of support measures such as settlement rewards, investment incentives, rent subsidies, preferential income tax and risk subsidies.
(2) Portman Fund Agglomeration Area
The Portman Fund Agglomeration Area is located in the core area of the Xiamen Convention and Exhibition North CBD at the Tefang Portman Wealth Center. It is a private equity investment fund park jointly developed by the Xiamen Municipal Financial Regulatory Bureau and the Siming District Government. Positioned in the core of Xiamen's Cross-Strait Financial Center, it boasts convenient transportation, comprehensive facilities, and public business service spaces tailored to the needs of the fund industry. Fund enterprises stationed here can enjoy a suite of supportive measures, including settlement rewards, investment incentives, rent subsidies, income tax concessions, and risk subsidies.
(3) Financial Technology Industrial Park
The Financial Technology Industrial Park is a distinctive financial technology industrial demonstration zone jointly built by Xiamen Financial Supervision Bureau and Siming District Government to boost the integrated development of financial and technology industries in Xiamen and enhance the level of financial services to the real economy. There are currently five buildings: Siming Design Center, Huaxin Jiasheng, Rida International, Tefang Portman, and Vanke Creative Commune. With a focus on blockchain, big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and other financial technology frontier areas, the park plans to introduce leading financial technology enterprises at home and abroad to form an influential financial technology industry cluster. Enterprises settling here can enjoy policy support in six areas, i.e. rent subsidy, business contribution reward, living allowance, individual income tax reward, financial talent reward, and financial technology industry investment fund support.
(II) High-end business office area
In addition to the financial industry, the Area is also a collection of major corporate headquarters, where there are professional buildings and distinctive buildings built to house the concentrated development of headquarters economy and new economy.
Companies that have settled in: GENERTEC、Xiamen Airlines, Zijin Mining，C&D Group，TIG Group, Information Group,R&B Group,Affordable Housing Group, SDIC、ANTA, SEVEN,Zhongqiao Sports、PEAK, Septwolves, ERKE, JOMOO, Xstep, JOEONE, Dell, Meitu, Meiya Pico, 4399, G-bits, Meiyou, etc.
(III) New urban area in the eastern part of the island
The Cross-strait Regional Financial Center Area boasts a pleasant ecological environment, convenient transportation facilities and well-established living facilities, making it a new urban center business district suitable for living, doing business and industry-city integration.
III. Advantages of Regional Supporting Facilities
1. Pleasant ecological environment
Lying in the embrace of the sea, 70% of the office and business areas here can enjoy a beautiful sea view. The Area is home to Wuyuan Bay Wetland Park (the largest wetland park in Xiamen), Wutong Bay (the largest bay) and Light House Park, Gaolin Park and other leisure recreational green parks.
2. Convenient transportation
The Area has formed a road network with "four verticals and four horizontals" as the backbone, consisting of Yunding North Road, Jinshan Road, Island Ring Boulevard, Huandao Road, Wuyuanwan Road, Xianyue Road, Jinzhong Road and Lvling Road. Xiang'an Tunnel and Xiang'an Bridge offer convenient access to and from the island. Metro Line 2 has been completed, which runs through the north and south, and Metro Line 5 that connects the east and west is now under planning. Third Eastern Passageway (under construction), directly connecting to Xiang'an Airport (under construction), and accommodates the Kinmen-Xiamen Mini Three Links that pass through the strait.
3. Talent resources
The Area is close to Xiamen National Accounting Institute and Xiamen University. It is leading domestically in the majors of finance, accounting, fiscal and statistics, which constitute the sustainable sources of talents for industrial development. A number of rental apartments for financial talents have been built in the Area. Meanwhile, there will be a large number of affordable rental housing and market-oriented rental apartments offered to provide a low-cost and high-quality living environment for financial talents.
4. Living facilities
The Area adheres to the concept of “green space is available within 10 meters, commercial facilities are reached within 100 meters, and supporting facilities are found within 1,000 meters”. It is well equipped with high-end medical resources such as Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University (Xiamen Branch), Humanity Hospital, Hongai Maternity Hospital, Xiamen Heart Center, Xiamen Eye Center, and Xiamen Stomatological Hospital; a wealth of educational resources such as Xiamen Music School, Shuangshi Middle School Siming Campus, Guanyinshan Music School, and Xiamen No.1 High School International Trade School (under construction); abundant sports and leisure resources such as Aowangcheng, Sailboat Club, yacht marina, and Wuyuan Sports Park under planning and construction; as well as more than 10 high-end hotel resources such as Shangri-La, InterContinental, Lohkah, DoubleTree Hilton, Wutong Fliport, Fairmont and St. Regis Hotels that is under negotiation for introduction.
IV. Direction of Investment Promotion
Priority will be given to finance, headquarters office, high-end services, tourism conference and exhibition.
By fully leveraging the advantages of location and policy support, comprehensive efforts are made to promote investment, with a strong focus on attracting major projects and providing proactive services. In 2023, the area attracted 10 new investment projects, with an additional investment amount of 8.42 billion yuan, an increase of 4.852 billion yuan from 2022. The new capital reached 1.17 billion yuan, with a project landing rate of 91.67% and a project investment completion rate of 137.22%. Key projects that have been successfully landed include the BRICS PartNIR Innovation Headquarters Project, the International Business Core Area A1 Plot Project, Zhongqiao Sports Headquarters Project, and the Wanjia International Hotel Project.
