To facilitate the arrival of these headquarters, Gulou offers "one-stop" services. Last year, headquarter operations notched up revenues of 1.92 billion yuan, accounting for more than 40 percent of the district's total revenue.

That is almost three times the number in 2004, when headquarters operations contributed 670 million yuan to local revenue.

"Years of practice shows that our strategy to attract headquarters is effective," he said.

Xu hoped that by 2010 there will be 10 companies each with annual revenue of 100 million yuan and 10 listed companies each with annual sales income of more than 10 billion yuan within Gulou's borders.

With the rapid growth in the number of company headquarters, Gulou's industrial mix is also evolving, Xu said.

Modern services like information technology are also burgeoning.

(China Daily October 20, 2008)