Makoto Kimura
Deputy Director, Research & Information Department(MIPRO)
Nippon Roballo Co., Ltd. (head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo), a wholly-owned company of Rothe Erde GmbH, which is a subsidiary of the ThyssenKrupp Group German steel concern and the worldfs leading manufacturer of large diameter slewing bearings, has recently announced its plan to construct a new factory in the Hibiki Seaside Industrial Zone in Wakamatsu, Kitakyushu. It plans to commence the production of slewing bearings for wind power generation plants in October 2008, with a total investment of 4.5 billion yen. The environment and energy sectors were among the central subjects of discussion at the 2008 Toyako Summit held in Hokkaido. Therefore, in anticipation of increasing demands in those sectors in Europe, USA, China, and India, Nippon Roballo plans to meet those demands with the commencement of production at its Kyushu Factory.
Kitakyushu City was selected as the location of the new factory, owing to such advantages as its well-developed logistics infrastructure, its proximity to other Asian countries, and good access to outstanding human resources.
There are now close to twenty foreign companies like Nippon Roballo operating in Kitakyushu. The city has actively implemented activities for inviting foreign companies particularly in the automobile, IT and environment sectors, utilizing the Industrial Siting Preferential Program. Among the three sectors, automobile and IT are also priority sectors for foreign business establishment in neighboring Fukuoka City, but the environment sector is another priority sector in the case of Kitakyushu. This is probably due to Kitakyushufs historical background as a city that has been developed from the steel industry and other large-scale heavy industries. In this respect, Kitakyushu tends strongly to promote foreign investment in the manufacturing industries from the perspective of complementing existing industries, compared to Fukuoka, which places relatively large weight on the service industries.
Automobile and on-board semiconductor industry clusters are especially prominent even from the perspective of the wider northern Kyushu region (Fukuoka and Oita Prefectures), which is home to 7 factories of finished car manufacturers including Toyota Motor and Nissan Motor Corporation and numerous parts manufacturers such as Denso Corporation. Annual automobile production in northern Kyushu has already surpassed 1 million units in FY2006, and Fukuoka Prefecture is striving toward the target of 1.5 million in FY2008.
Kitakyushu City is a government-designated city situated in the northeastern part of Fukuoka Prefecture. It was established in February 1963 by the merging of the five cities of Moji, Kokura, Wakamatsu, Yahata, and Tobata, and is the first city in Kyushu to have a population of a million. One of the advantages of Kitakyushu is its strategic location. Within a 1000-kilometer radius from the city is Shanghai to the west, Tokyo to the east, and Vladivostok to the north. Kitakyushu is essentially positioned at the gateway to the rapidly growing markets of East Asia and Russia.
In Kitakyushu, the Trade Promotion Division in the Industry and Economy Bureau governs foreign investment promotion. The Investment Promotion Division is responsible for providing various subsidies, grants, and loans to domestic and foreign companies establishing a business in the city, while the Seaport and Airport Bureau is in charge of attracting port and harbor logistics companies. The Trade Promotion Division also supports the globalization efforts of local companies, in addition to promoting investment by foreign companies. It has an office and consultation center in the AIM Building located within walking distance from the north exist of JR Kokura Station, and integrally operates the Kitakyushu Trade and Investment One-stop Service Center (KTI Center) with the JETRO Kitakyushu Office and Kitakyushu Foreign Trade Association. Today, KTI has seven incubation offices for use by foreign companies. Unlike JETROfs Invest Japan Business Support Centers (IBSC) which may be used free of charge, Kitakyushufs incubation offices require a certain fee (monthly payment of 18,000-25,200 yen; free of charge to foreign public institutions), but they can be leased for up to 24 months.
In FY2008, Kitakyushu City appropriated a budget of approx. 11.2 billion yen for the "strategic promotion of corporate investment." Most of that amount is tagged for subsidies, loans, and land development expenses for the construction or expansion of factories, but the city has set a target of attracting 80 domestic and foreign companies to the city (including 20 automobile companies) and creating 4,000 new employment opportunities within the four years from 2007 and 2010, as achievement indicators. Toward the goal of attracting foreign companies, the Kitakyushu City Trade Promotion Division, Tokyo Office (Kitakyushu City Promotion Metropolitan Headquarters), and Kitakyushu Business Promotion Offices (Dalian, Shanghai) work in concert to implement investment promotion activities in cooperation with prefectural overseas offices and related organizations. The city also conducts multifaceted promotion activities, by making full use of regional invitation programs and the Regional Industry Tie-up Program (RIT; the focus of this fiscal yearfs program is on IT industry tie-ups with Hanoi, Vietnam) of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and JETRO.
Kitakyushu City is also actively promoting industry-academia collaboration and human resource development. The Kitakyushu Science and Research Park (KSRP), located in the Hibikino district of Wakamatsu, Kitakyushu, is a cluster of universities and research institutes that play a central role in the development of advanced science technology. It aims to advance existing industries and create new industries through partnerships with the industrial world. The city is also promoting efforts to develop high-tech human resources capable of leading the next generation in industries, such as through the Car Electronics Center Project. A significant number of educational and research institutions related to advanced science technology share high-level facilities and conduct joint educational and research activities based on a strong framework of collaboration. Universities located in Kitakyushu include the University of Kitakyushu, Kyushu Institute of Technology Graduate School of Life Science and Systems Engineering, Fukuoka University Graduate School of Engineering, Waseda University Graduate School of Information, Production and Systems, and UKfs Cranfield University.
Kitakyushu City Trade and Promotion Division (Foreign Investment Promotion Office)
Tel: 81-93-551-3605 Fax: 81-93-551-3615
http://www.kk-j.org/
