Every investment promotion professional knows that when a project settles in a particular region, it is never a matter of chance. It requires long-term evaluation, assessment, and negotiations between the investment promotion team and the enterprise. It is not uncommon for the entire process to take six months, or even one to two years. So, what are the key steps the investment promotion team takes during such a lengthy cycle? How exactly does an industrial park carry out its investment promotion work?

A Classic Process That Never Fails

1. Initial Contact: It Starts with Interest

Initially, the company is in the stage of screening potential investment locations. Generally, they consider investment issues from market, industry, and technical perspectives, compile a list of preferred regions, and then conduct specialized analyses based on different dimensions.

At this stage, the investment promotion team is also gaining an initial understanding of the company. Key evaluation criteria include the motivations behind the investment plan, core concerns, and target regions. Depending on the project’s scale and urgency, the team takes the initiative to mobilize relevant resources, provide accurate and actionable information, and lay the groundwork for future in-depth collaboration.

2. Further Screening: Demonstrating Sincere Commitment

At this stage, the company begins on-site research to gain a deeper understanding of the region’s investment environment, business climate, government support, industrial infrastructure, and available facilities—all of which are key areas of focus for the company.

At this stage, the investment promotion team must take the initiative and act as the architect of the project’s implementation. After understanding the company’s fundamental vision and core requirements, the team can rapidly integrate local resources—including industries, land, existing enterprises, and investment funds—to propose a feasible development roadmap for the target company.

3. Addressing Challenges: Aligning with Capabilities

In this phase, the company will negotiate with the investment promotion team regarding key development needs or pain points, aiming to secure more policy incentives and create optimal conditions for future growth.

This is also the most critical moment for the government’s efforts; whether the project is successfully attracted hinges on this “final push.” In addition to standard policies, the investment promotion team can offer “tailored solutions for each enterprise,” providing appropriate specialized support to demonstrate local efficiency. However, clear bottom lines must be established to avoid excessive costs associated with attracting the project, which could backfire.

4. Finalization: Commitment to Service

Finally, the focus shifts to project design, construction, and trial operations following the partnership agreement.

Many may assume that the primary work of investment promotion ends here, but in essence, this is where it truly begins. The government must continue to provide follow-up services to the enterprise, understand the project’s construction needs, resolve difficulties and issues encountered during implementation, and accelerate the project’s completion. After a new project is completed, local governments can also use it as a platform for business-to-business investment promotion, attracting upstream and downstream supporting industries or related sectors.

Innovation Brings Greater Vitality

1. Shifting from “Support” to “Leadership”

In the traditional investment promotion process, the government’s approach often followed the company’s site selection timeline, frequently operating in a supporting role. In the Investment Promotion 4.0 era, the government has begun taking the initiative. Through high-level forums, professional institutions, and investment heat maps, it identifies target industry projects, pinpoints potential partners, and then launches targeted investment promotion efforts.

Today, the government no longer merely responds to corporate requests but engages in constructive interaction with enterprises. By aligning with companies’ core needs and integrating local industrial development strategies, the government resolves issues related to upstream and downstream industrial support, designs feasible development pathways, and optimizes the integration of local production factors such as talent, capital, and raw materials.

In early 2020, Suzhou’s release of the “Suzhou Open Innovation Cooperation Heat Map” garnered widespread attention, and since then, investment heat maps have gradually become a powerful tool for regions to attract investors. This “map-plus-information” format vividly and comprehensively showcases the business environment, investment policies, and industrial spatial layout, covering nearly all elements of investment promotion and ensuring investors can grasp the full picture of a region in the shortest possible time.

2. From “Policy” to “Market”

In recent years, the concept of market-oriented investment promotion has been mentioned with increasing frequency, and some regions have even issued official documents explicitly encouraging this approach. In fact, compared to traditional government-led models, market-oriented commissioned investment promotion can more effectively mobilize the enthusiasm of social organizations, enterprises, and business associations both within and outside the city, fostering a citywide effort in investment promotion.

Investment promotion agencies have accumulated years of experience in this field, with big data and intelligent technologies serving as their “secret weapons.” This gives them a distinct advantage in terms of information and expertise, allowing them to recommend targeted projects to various regions through professional channels such as investment promotion seminars and big data-driven precision matching.

As a market-oriented investment promotion platform with 12 years of experience, Guchuan Lianxing has partnered with over 100 government-run industrial parks and organizations nationwide. Based on Rizhao’s industrial positioning and development strategy, Guchuan Lianxing successfully attracted Great Wall Motor—one of China’s top three private automakers—to the city, injecting powerful momentum into the development and strengthening of Rizhao’s complete vehicle manufacturing industrial chain.

3. From “Serial” to “Parallel”

In the past, government investment promotion processes were relatively rigid. However, with the innovative development of business environments across regions and the digital and intelligent upgrades of government service systems—such as the emergence of “one-stop service” and “online-only processing”—the efficiency of business operations has been significantly enhanced.

This year, the National Yuhang Economic and Technological Development Zone in Linping District, Hangzhou, achieved a 45-day timeline from land acquisition to project commencement for multiple projects, shortening the entire process by more than four months. A polymer materials company required an “over-limit review” during the approval process due to the project’s substantial investment and large land area. To accelerate the project’s implementation, the development zone designed a plan in advance, paving the way for subsequent work and significantly shortening the time required for the project to commence production.

To assist enterprises in expediting procedures, the park has assigned dedicated personnel to guide companies through relevant formalities and provide full-process agency services, ensuring that projects are reviewed immediately upon submission and approved upon passing the review.

4. From “Transaction” to “Win-Win”

As the national economy shifts toward high-quality development, localities have long moved beyond the previous “anything goes” approach to attracting investment. Instead, they now “select projects” based on regional industrial positioning and strategies, per-mu economic efficiency, environmental sustainability, and technological innovation capabilities.

Shanghai’s decision to attract Tesla is a prime example of a win-win outcome. Tesla secured ultra-low land prices and 20 billion yuan in interest-free loans upon establishing its presence in Shanghai. The well-developed supply chain in Shanghai’s “Gigafactory” not only reduces Tesla’s production costs but also resolves capacity constraints. On the surface, it appears that Shanghai paid a “heavy price” to attract Tesla.

In reality, Tesla acts like a “catfish”—its arrival has had a massive impact on the development of China’s new energy vehicle industry, providing a powerful driving force for the continuous advancement of the domestic new energy market. Domestic new energy vehicle manufacturers are like “sardines” in the ocean; they must rapidly enhance their technological innovation to avoid being eliminated.

Conclusion

Whether it is a traditional investment promotion model or an innovative investment promotion process, the core principle is to consider issues from the enterprise’s perspective and resolve the “pain points” and “bottlenecks” in their development. At the same time, local resources must be reasonably integrated and utilized to revitalize all aspects of the economy, thereby truly achieving a win-win and mutually beneficial outcome.