In September 1978, right before the reform and opening-up policy was introduced, a Hong Kong businessman set up a purse-manufacturing factory in Guangdong's Dongguan City. It was the first original equipment manufacturer (OEM) factory, which imports materials and exports the finished products, on the mainland approved by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. Although some of those "firsts" vanished during the 30 years of development, they made imperishable landmark undertakings.

A large number of modern cities in Guangdong, including Dongguan, Shenzhen, Zhongshan and Zhuhai, sprang up thanks to the influx of investments from Hong Kong and Macao. Guangdong Province's GDP jumped to first place among all mainland provinces in terms of FDI and has maintained this position for the past 20 years. Previously, it had lingered in the category of the least productive province.

Ricky Cheng, Co-Chairman of China South International Industrial Materials City, made a fortune by making and selling jewelry on the mainland and is now involved in his second business venture-creating the biggest industrial material distribution center on the mainland.

"Hong Kong investors at my age are the luckiest and work the hardest," said Cheng, who is in his 50s. "The reform on the mainland has given us too many opportunities, and we dare not risk to take a break because we are greedy for each opportunity."

Jiang Zengwei, Vice Minister of Commerce, said that investors from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao have contributed to every advancement in the mainland's economic and social development, and that they have been an inseparable force in China's long march to prosperity.

Taiwan--big FDI source

Since 2000, Taiwanese investment in the mainland has become increasingly technology-intensive instead of labor-intensive. A total of 33 Taiwan-invested companies have set up either regional headquarters or research and development centers in Shanghai. They are now entering the service industry, including banking, insurance and health care.

Taiwanese brands such as Ting Hsin (food), Friend Machinery (machine tools), Foxconn (spare computer parts), RiTEK (discs), Giant (bicycles), Chi Mei (liquified crystal displays), and Altek (digital cameras) all saw their businesses boom after they moved to the mainland.

"We would have been suffocated if we had not moved to the mainland," said Thomas Lee, Vice Chairman and President of Fuchun Resort in Zhejiang Province, a chain of hotel and golf clubs.

"Taiwan island is too small for many enterprises. Therefore, many businesses moved their manufacturing centers to the vast mainland," said Jack Tsang, Executive General Manager of Delta Electronics Inc. in Dongguan. Tsang said he was thrilled to see so many people when he first visited the mainland in the late 1980s, because Taiwan was in desperate need of labor and land.

Kunshan in Jiangsu Province is one of the many cities whose economic competitiveness has been strengthened by Taiwan-invested companies. The city occupies no more than 960 square km, yet is clustered with more than 3,200 Taiwan-invested companies. Kunshan is now an important base for information technology products. In 2007, about 40 percent of the world's laptops and one eighth of global digital cameras were produced in Kunshan, most of which were manufactured by Taiwan-funded companies.

"Taiwan businesspeople follow the 'immigrant' way of investment due to the special kinship between Taiwan and the mainland," said Hector Yeh, Executive Vice-President of the Association of Taiwan Investment Enterprises on the mainland. Taiwan businessmen tend to bring their families to the mainland, buy houses here and stay on the mainland after their businesses take shape, he added.

By the end of this September, the mainland's paid-in capital from Taiwan stood at $47.22 billion, ranking it the fourth largest global source of FDI, after Hong Kong, Japan and the United States.

Changing people's lives

Wu Jun, Deputy Director General of the Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation of Guangdong Province, highlighted the role of Taiwanese, Hong Kong and Macao investments in changing the social lives of mainland residents for the better.