China's Top Ten Software Technology Parks

China has been actively developing its software technology parks throughout its geography. CCID Consulting analyzes and ranks the top ten parks in terms of investment attractiveness. First, there are three factors that contribute to China's software park development:

Favorable China government policies to software technology park development.

The central government has overall policies that encourage the development of China's high technology and software industries, with additional policies targeted towards the growth of software technology parks.

At the local level, governments have special funding for software park development, with policies favoring startup enterprises as well as medium and large enterprise development. Some local governments have even set up funds to encourage enterprises to pass CMM/CMMI certifications.

Software park administration and services are continuously expanding and improving.

Software park administrative organization are providing more comprehensive support services for enterprises, as the success of the software park depends on the success of enterprises in the park. Currently, enterprises can ask for assistance in a variety of areas, including (depending on the software park) incubation, organizational establishment, policy guidance, business training, outsourcing services, investment and financing, international resources guidance, market promotion, IP and legal consulting.

Software technology parks are differentiating by domain and geography, thereby enhancing their value.

Different software parks are building their own unique branding and value propositions based on their advantages. For example, software parks in China's northeast provinces take advantage of their locale and language in software outsourcing to Japan and South Korea. Beijing Software Technology Park, on the other hand, focuses on building off of China's financial services industries.

CCID Consulting ranks Shanghai Software Park as the top technology park in terms of investment attractiveness. The top ten parks are listed below. The top ten are also evenly distributed in terms of geography, among which three are located in China's Bohai rim, three in the Yangtze River Delta, two in the Pearl River Delta Area, and one each in China's Northwest and Southwest regions.

Rank	Software Technology Park	Score
1	Shanghai Software Park	81.00
2	Beijing Software Industry Base	80.64
3	Shenzhen Software Park	80.50
4	Dalian Software Park	78.88
5	Xi’an Software Park	72.98
6	Chengdu Tianfu Software Park	72.32
7	Guangzhou Tianhe Software Park	71.30
8	Jinan Qilu Software Park	71.10
9	Hangzhou High Technology Software Park	70.92
10	Nanjing (Jiansu) Software Park	69.24

CCID Consulting, after thoroughly reviewing China's software technology parks, makes the following three recommendations:

A successful, major enterprise will have a spillover effect of fostering an entire software ecosystem. Enterprises in the ecosystem can further be united or strengthened based on complementary capabilities.

For example, Neusoft is the leading enterprise for Dalian Software Park and Neusoft had set up six additional companies in the Park's initial stages. Benefiting from Neusoft, Dalian Software Park has succeeded building its software industry quite rapidly, and also attracting further investment.

The absence of selective admissions criteria and its administration is one key reason why some of China's software parks fail in its development. China's software technology parks need to establish and administer clear admissions criteria, and continuously monitor enterprise progress to create a cycle of success. Those not meeting the criteria should be carefully treated and still be encouraged, to foster a positive environment for all.

Providing effective investment vehicles for enterprises is a key element for the software technology park. Besides, lack of investment is the main bottleneck for China's software industry at present. Software parks need to be proactive in facilitating credits, banking relationships, and other capital market resources for its enterprises.

For example, China's more visible enterprises Tencent and Baidu have benefited from successful investment rounds. However, their funding successes have come from overseas venture capitalists. China is reforming its own capital markets, and China's domestic investment environment should improve.

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Unless otherwise specified, all information provided is sourced from CCID Consulting.