At noon of October 19, Executive Vice Mayor Xiao Shengfeng met with Mr. Simon Murray, chairman of Simon Murray & Company (SMC), and his delegation at the VIP Hall in the Shangri-La Hotel, Dalian. Dong Chengfa, secretary of Dalian Huayankou Economic Zone CCP Affairs Work Committee and director of the Administrative Committee of the Zone, Cao Xu, vice secretary-general of the Dalian Municipal Government and director general of the Dalian Municipal Finance Office, Liu Xiaoyang, deputy director of the Dalian Foreign Trade & Economic Cooperation Bureau, Wang Huijun, deputy director of the Administrative Committee of Dalian Huayankou Economic Zone, Zhang Bing, deputy director of the Dalian Municipal Finance Office, and Wu Jing, deputy director of the Dalian Branch of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, attended the meeting.
Xiao briefed the guests on basic information concerning Dalian, in particular of Dalian s social and economic development since the implementation of the revitalization of old industrial bases in the Northeast and the opening and development of Liaoning Coastal Economic Zone. He said that Dalian is now in full swing to promote macro-urbanization with the construction of Three Centers, One Cluster as a priority, and is in an investment-oriented stage with strong intentions on the part of both government and enterprises, which needs more financial support and the participation of all walks of life. To encourage and promote the development of equity investment funds, the Dalian Municipal Government has identified 2010 as a Year of Investment Funds, or a PE Year, to carry out the Plan for 1+10+N Equity Investment Development, namely, to establish a 3 billion yuan Government-led Fund for the guidance of more than 10 industry investment funds with a total scale of 50 billion yuan, driving the development of 100 companies of venture capital, risk investment and equity investment with a total scale of 50 billion yuan to obtain direct investment capacity for 100 billion yuan. The government will promulgate timely options and policy measures to support various types of equity investment funds and companies in their operation and development in Dalian. Xiao continued that Huayuankou is the key area in the development of the Liaoning Coastal Economic Zone and the only state-level base for new high-tech industrial materials in the Northeast as well, therefore the Dalian Municipal Government welcomes SMC to invest and develop in Dalian and will greatly support the cooperation between SMC and the Huayuankou Economic Zone with a firm belief that there will be double wins in future.
Mr. Murray said that his first visit to China was 40 years ago and he has directly witnessed the tremendous changes in China, especially the rapid social and economic development as well as the fast improvement of people's living standards after 1985. Though he has never been to Dalian before, he knows a lot about Dalian a city enjoying a high reputation and international competitiveness with the same industrial structure and development ideas as SMC. He has been firmly convinced, through Xiao s briefing, to invest and develop in Dalian and expects growing cooperation with Dalian.
SMC was established in 1997 with headquarters in Hong Kong, engaging in 7 investment funds such as risk investment, private equity, real estate equity investments, etc. They established the first RMB Fund in Wuxi in 2009 SMC Guolian Wuxi Fund. Mr. Simon Murray s visit to Dalian is for a discussion about their cooperation with the Huayuankou Economic Zone to set up an SMC Dalian Equity Investment Fund, which will be a Sino-foreign cooperative partnership with a total fund size of 6 billion yuan, mainly for low-carbon energy industries in Dalian.
