Investment Guide >> overview

China, (People's Republic of China), is situated in eastern Asia, bounded by the Pacific in the east. The third largest country in the world, next to Canada and Russia, it has an area of 9.6 million square kilometers, or one-fifteenth of the world's land mass. It begins from the confluence of the Heilong and Wusuli rivers (135 degrees and 5 minutes east longitude) in the east to the Pamirs west of Wuqia County in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (73 degrees and 40 minutes east longitude) in the west, about 5,200 kilometers apart; and from the midstream of the Heilong River north of Mohe (53 degrees and 31 minutes north latitude) in the north to the southernmost island Zengmu'ansha in the South China Sea (4 degrees and 15 minutes north latitude), about 5,500 kilometers apart.The border stretches over 22,000 kilometers on land and the coastline extends well over 18,000 kilometers, washed by the waters of the Bohai, the Huanghai, the East China and the South China seas. The Bohai Sea is the inland sea of China.There are 6,536 islands larger than 500 square meters, the largest is Taiwan, with a total area of about 36,000 square kilometers, and the second, Hainan. The South China Sea Islands are the southernmost island group of China.

During the last two decades of economic and social reform, and the opening up of the country to the outside world, China's economy has sustained a rapid growth, with an average annual rate of 9.8%, 6.5 percentage points higher than that of the world. China's gross domestic product (GDP), which came to only RMB 362.41 billion yuan in 1978, amounted to 7955.3 billion yuan in 1999, a 20-fold increase. Now China ranks No.7 in the world in terms of total supply, and No.1 in terms of economic growth rate and demand.

To encourage the stimulation of economic growth a number of special measures were taken in China. These included free-trade zones, economic and technological development zones, and in particular a large number of high-tech development zones. Let SAT check out for you how preferential policies in these areas may help your business.

The fast economic development in China and her preparation for joining the WTO have brought about extremely high demands for high-tech products, in particular management software and IT solutions. However, the quantity and quality of Chinese domestic products are far from sufficient to meet the rapid growth of the demand. A great number of Chinese companies have therefore turned their eyes to western countries, particularly the UK, searching for the right software products and solutions that can help improve the quality of their management and operations.
The high demands for management software, IT solutions as well as other high-tech products in China and the supply of quality products produced in the UK has created great opportunities for UK business to explore.