Living in the luxury of laptops

Chongqing's laptop manufacturing is generally traced back to May 2008 when a representative of the mayor, Huang Qifan, visited HP's headquarters in Palo Alto, California, on a mission to persuade the company to set up a manufacturing base in the Chinese city. HP had set up its first manufacturing plant in China, in Shanghai, 16 years earlier. Chongqing officials argued that as a traditional mechanical manufacturing city, it could provide 80 percent of laptop parts locally, greatly reducing logistics costs.

The HP board was won over, and since then HP has invested a lot in Chongqing, says Todd Bradley, the company's executive vice-president.

"We've got all kinds of work out there," he says, adding that HP continues to invest in the city as its international capacity, such as logistics, increases.

Cui Fuqiu, vice-president of HP China, says: "HP, as the first global leading technology company launched in Chongqing, is working with China's 'Go West' strategy and giving it its backing."

Companies are drawn to Chongqing by its business incentives, its healthy labor market, traditional manufacturing capability and growing logistics networks, he says.

Zhang of Acer says: "The central government has given its backing to the development of the laptop industry in Chongqing. We benefit from preferential policies. The city also has a manufacturing industrial chain related to making laptops, so we don't need to worry about supplies and the parts we need."

Acer's commitment to China includes the intention "gradually to relocate most of the business to the Chinese mainland", he says.

He sees human resources as one of Chongqing's main assets. "We pay staff in Chongqing and other places the same wages, and people in Chongqing are happier."

The city's developing logistics are also important he says, something echoed by Ke Bin, president of Asus Chongqing.

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