Ningbo lies in the south of the Yangtze River Delta and faces the East China Sea to the east. It covers an area of 9,816 sq.km and has a population of 9.544 million. Converted at the prevailing average annual exchange rate, Ningbo’s GDP in 2021 reached US$224.54 billion, up by 8.2% over the previous year and ranking 12th among all Chinese cities. The per capita GDP stood at US$23,858 while the fisical revenue was US$50.22 billion. Nowadays, Ningbo has become an important foreign trade port in China, an economic center and an advanced manufacturing base in the south wing of the Yangtze River Delta.

Ningbo has been a major city with an open economy ever since it became one of the first coastal cities in China to open to the outside world. The Ningbo-Zhoushan Port is the world’s largest port in terms of cargo throughput. It handled 1.22 billion tons of cargo in 2021 with a total of 287 shipping routes including 134 ocean-going main routes to date. In September 2020, the Ningbo area of China (Zhejiang) Free Trade Zone was approved by the State Council, which means more policy advantages and development opportunities for foreign enterprises.

Germany and Ningbo are partners of development for a long time. By the end of 2021, there were in total 295 German-invested enterprises in Ningbo, with an overall investment of US$6.15 billion, and foreign capital in actual use of US$1.93 billion. Germany is the European country that has invested most in Ningbo. Fortune 500 enterprises such as Demag, Bosch, Volkswagen, Linde Gas and Daimler have investment projects in Ningbo.

Ningbo has vigorously promoted reforms to create a stable, fair and transparent business environment. It continues to introduce preferential policies to encourage the development of key industries, attract talents, and provide superior public services, whose overall satisfaction is among the highest in the country. The city also continues to improve the intellectual property rights protection system, enhance law enforcement efforts to better protect the rights of enterprises. Last year, Ningbo ranked 5th among the top in business environment satisfaction in the country.

We sincerely invite German entrepreneurs and investors to come to Ningbo and explore new potentials, opening up a new field of bilateral cooperation.

The Ningbo Investment Promotion Center is a government service organization responsible for domestic and foreign investment promotion. We provide “one-stop” professional investment advisory services for German enterprises to invest in Ningbo.