In response to the frequent enquiries on industry relocation and industrial upgrading trends in China's manufacturing sector, especially in the PRD, we would like to draw your attention to a newly released guideline on industry relocation by the Guangdong government in June 2008 named the Guidelines on the Layout of Industry Relocation Regions in Guangdong Province (the Guidelines). Please see full text here.

The Guidelines is important for it has mapped out Guangdong's relocation plan. In the Guidelines, the government stipulated that the relocation process is going to be a "coordinated" one -a number of selected industries will be encouraged to relocate to designated areas to achieve a rational division of work and to avoid direct competition among regions. Also, the government has identified certain industrial relocation parks in the relocation destinations.

(1) The encouraged industries/ products for relocation and the respective designated relocation areas

For more information on the designated relocation regions and the encouraged industries to be relocated, please refer to p.2-3 of the Guidelines.

As for the encouraged products for relocation, please refer to Appendix 1: the encouraged products for relocation to the eastern and western PRD and northern Guangdong.

(2) Industries/ products prohibited from relocation

On the other hand, industries causing pollution, over-exploitation of resources and some other industries are prohibited from relocation. You can find more information in Appendix 2: the prohibited products for relocation to the eastern and western PRD and northern Guangdong.

(3) The designated industrial relocation parks

To facilitate industry relocation, Guangdong province has approved 24 designated industrial relocation parks as of mid June 2008 and more is expected to come. Each park will develop one or two leading industries and seek to nurture industrial clusters. More resources will be injected into parks with outstanding performance or great potential. The list of approved industrial relocation parks and its respective leading industries can be found in Appendix 3: the leading industries of approved industrial relocation parks of Guangdong Province.