Beyond its land, park possesses another huge asset: water

It's obvious really: If you're in the boat business, you have to go to where the water is. Which partly explains why Bill McEathron went to Suzhou, in Jiangsu province, often hailed as China's answer to Venice.

Mind you, McEathron came from the United States to Suzhou not selling gondolas, but "marine propulsion engines".

In furthering that aim, 12 years ago his company decided to enlist the services of Suzhou Industrial Park, and what has happened since has left him more than pleasantly surprised.

"The changes are so big and unbelievable. And, for sure, we foreign companies located in the park have benefited a lot from its development."

McEathron, 48, is general manager of Mercury Marine Asia and a former chairman of the Suzhou committee of the American Chamber of Commerce Shanghai.

He graduated from the University of Wisconsin with an MBA degree in 2005, and started working for Mercury Marine in 1986.

McEathron, speaking in the company's China headquarters, in the Suzhou Industrial Park, says that when he first came to Suzhou in 1997, it was a backwater.

"It was lagging behind in development and like the countryside. We expected it to grow as a future tourist zone."

After first setting up its sales operations in Suzhou, five years later Mercury Marine decided to move its manufacturing to China and chose the Suzhou park as its destination. It was one of the first foreign companies to move into the park, which had opened eight years earlier.

Mercury Marine's manufacturing operations are located inside the park's export zone, adjacent to the Yangtze River, which is of tremendous help to the company, McEathron says.

"And the park is a good talent pool for manufacturing and management professionals."

In Suzhou the company employs 170 people in manufacturing and 45 on the commercial side, and its products are sold in many countries, McEathron says.

It had $3.8 billion (2.7 billion euros) in sales revenue worldwide last year. The market for marine propulsion engines in China is its largest one in Asia, he says.

With the support of Mercury Marine's "strong backbone" in Suzhou, the Chinese market also is the fastest growing one for the company in Asia, McEathron says.

"Our achievements are also reliant on the fast development of Suzhou Industrial Park."

The park is "a perfect combination of Singapore organization and Chinese thinking", he says.

That includes the layout, which presents "a nice combination of doing business and living".

Yet 11 years ago, when Yang Zhiping, director of the park's administrative committee, presented the development plans at Mercury's headquarters in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, McEathron says he was unimpressed.

At the time, he thought Yang came across as a slick salesman trying to sell a plan that was "overly optimistic", he says.

"Yang has delivered not only what he said but also far exceeded the goals, beyond my expectations."

McEathron, who served as chairman of the US Chamber of Commerce Suzhou chapter for about three years, says the growth in membership also reflects the industrial park's growth.

"In 1997 there were not that many foreigners here. What was then and what is now are totally different."

Since the chamber opened an office in the park in 2012, it has been able to give a lot of attention to US businesses growing in the city, he says. There are about 200 members and it is one of the most active subcommittees of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, McEathron says.

"Every month we hold a seminar on a topic related to running business here, ranging from labor unions to new regulations. Sometimes industrial park executive officials also visit us and offer tips on business operations, which are very helpful, because we can stay on top of changes."

McEathron says that to make the park's growth sustainable, it needs to bring in more high-tech companies.

"Park officials have realized that and have made aggressive plans to attract technology-based companies. The park is one of the top choices in China for most technology-based companies and for foreign investment companies. We are confident that the park's development will continue."

Contact the writers through huhaiyan@chinadaily.com.cn

Shen Lin contributed to the story

(China Daily European Weekly 07/04/2014 page16)