Shannon Brandao
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"🎯 Reuters [excerpt]: Office workers are not the only ones grumbling about the unattractiveness of Qianhai, a special economic zone where Chinese dreams of global financial might and economic prosperity that once seemed inevitable are now darkened by half-empty skyscrapers and shopping malls as well as barely used motorways.
This #Shenzhen appendix opened for #business more than a decade ago after an initial investment of $45 billion, with state media calling it mainland #China's own Hong Kong: a future international tech and finance hub; a testbed for liberalising markets and information access.
But Reuters interviews with 10 executives and investors, as well as real estate experts, diplomats and economists and 10 workers in the area during six visits between September and November paint a picture of a largely deserted district that has given up on its reformist ambitions. At the same time, these people said, Qianhai is struggling to stand out among 2,500 other special zones across China dangling various subsidies at reluctant businesses.
Five economists and three diplomats told Reuters Qianhai's travails reflect the limits of China's old 'build it and they will come' growth model - one that worked wonders a generation earlier for wider Shenzhen, among the country's first and most successful special economic zones.
The office vacancy rate was 28.9% in the third quarter, near the highest in three years, versus 23.2% in Shenzhen overall, and 15.1% to 17.1% in Beijing and Shanghai, according to Knight Frank, despite Qianhai's lower rental prices."
#news