Pioneer high-tech Company Ltd. (Shanghai) is a large scale production enterprise invested by one of the Global Fortune 500 - Pioneer Tsusho (Japan), with total investment of 85 million USD.  Pioneer (Shanghai) mainly designs, develops and produces high-tech electronic video and audio products.

Time turning back to September 2000, Pioneer Group Japan made the decision of setting up a plant in China that produces multi-type and high-tech products. After 3 months of strict addressing processes (from different industrial zones in Shanghai to Kunshan and Suzhou industrial zone in Jiangsu Province), and several rounds of analysis and investigation, finally company targeted on Shanghai, the region with talented people, sound environment and convenient traffic infrastructure. Shanghai enjoys great advantages in terms of its sound investment environment, high education level, well-educated people and abundant talents. Shanghai also shows its leading position in geographic location, embracing big-scale seaport and airport which are crucial to those production bases specializing in export business. Plant construction was started in January 2001, and launch of production began in August 2001. The construction of a 30,000 m² modern plant was accomplished within only 7 months, which obviously marked an incredible Pioneer Pace and also attributed to the strong support and help from relevant departments of Shanghai municipal government.  Meanwhile, it took Pioneer only 1 month to import, install and successfully tested the production equipments worth of millions of USD, which, if at normal speed, would have took at least several months to finish all the procedures (including application for tax-free, custom clearance, commercial product inspection, normal checks; and if equipments were not delivered at the same time, the production line could not be tested), therefore and this quick pace was apparently another miracle made by Pioneer team, and it attributed to the great support and endeavors made by the Customs and the Commercial Inspection Bureau.  With such a good beginning, the sales revenue and export volume of Pioneer High-tech (Shanghai) Company Ltd. has been climbing up dramatically in a geometric series in the last three years. Thus it can be seen that the rapid development of the company results from those beneficial conditions, and at the same time, attributes to the continuous endeavors by the Managing Director and every employee of the company.

Chapter 1 Trying to become one of the most important production bases of Pioneer Group in the globe.

Starting from the day when the first product was produced in September 2001 until now, every year for Pioneer High-tech (Shanghai) Company Ltd. is a huge leap in its development.  Its sales revenue increased from 85 million RMB in 2001 to 5 billion RMB (forecast) in 2004, and the export business revenue jumped from 80 million RMB in 2001 to 5 billion RMB (forecast) in 2004. Therefore, Pioneer was awarded Golden Prize — one of Shanghai top 100 foreign trade & export business enterprises in both year 2002 and 2003.  During company’s development progress, it also encounters lots of difficulties. Facing the very SARS period, Pioneer adopted necessary measures, and in line with Shanghai Municipal government’s requests, it kept on with production and meanwhile, taking proactive actions against the spread of SARS. During that period, some Japanese reckoned the SARS situation in China had becoming more severe and dangerous and putting big-scale production into China would endure huge risks. They suggested that in order to disperse the risks, company should move some production from Shanghai to Southeast Asia. Under that very situation, Pioneer made great efforts in communicating with Japan Head office through telephone, email and video conferences, explaining to Japan side that the spread of SARS in Shanghai was under effective control, and that the SARS situation in Shanghai was not that severe as reported as in Japan media. Through effective communication and hard efforts of Pioneer management team, production volume of Pioneer (Shanghai) was eventually not reduced but increased, and the export volume was expanded as well. Pioneer has already taken sufficient actions to prevent against SARS in the very beginning when SARS started to spread. Due to the effective actions taken, Pioneer went through the difficult period. Mr. Tian, Board Chairman particularly reported Pioneer’s experiences and achievements to Mr. Han Zheng, Shanghai Vice Mayor and leaders of Shanghai Foreign Trade & Economy Ministry and got recognition and sound comments from Shanghai municipal government. Pioneer regarded SARS period as one of the most difficult time for China, and as a legal entity enterprise in China, Pioneer should not only take proactive measures against SARS and continue with production, but also devote its own contributions for the government. Young as Pioneer was, nor has it earned much profit, Pioneer still made the decision of donating to Shanghai Civic Administration Bureau. Mr. Tian personally donated for SARS prevention, which encouraged every employee working in Pioneer donated for the purpose of collecting funds for SARS prevention, and contributed their own endeavors for Shanghai and for China.

Chapter 2  Trying to become good overseas research & development base of Pioneer Group

Pioneer successfully launched and increased their production volume, while the company is not self-contented with this achievement; furthermore, Pioneer introduced the state-of-art electronic technology of Pioneer (Japan) into Shanghai. After lots of endeavors, the R & D, which represents the most advanced technology in global electronic industry, was introduced to Shanghai in 2002. Pioneer selected qualified Shanghai young talents and sent them to Pioneer Japan for education and training. Currently, R & D owns hundreds of local engineering technicians. The 5000 m² plus R & D building was built up in 2003, and various products developed and produced by Shanghai R & D center are sold and distributed to other regions of the world.

Chapter 3 Realize the localization of management and technical team

Currently there are nearly 3000 employees in the company, and by the end of this year, the total number of employees will exceed 3500. Hereinto local management team has exceeded over 20 people, and engineering technicians reached 220 people. With the continuous development of local employees, number of long-term Japanese employees in Shanghai is gradually reducing.

Chapter4 Expanding local procurement rate of raw materials

Recently, the localization rate of DVD player and auto stereo has exceeded 40%, with 100% localization rate of structural components. Due to the special features of electronic components, Pioneer has formed a dedicated study team that focuses on improving the localization of electronic components.

Additionally, Pioneer brought up Local Component Plant with its high technology, and contributed its own endeavors for the upgrading of local industrial technologies.

In such a prosperous city abundant with different foreign invested companies, Pioneer High-tech (Shanghai) Company, Ltd. is no doubt great force that no one should ever deny. It’s not only the biggest production base of Pioneer Group outside Japan, but also enjoys globally leading and highest-level R & D center in terms of electronic industry, which will eventually enhance the scientific level of electronic products in China and even in the whole globe. Such huge development has provided Japan side with sufficient evidence that makes them believe Shanghai China is the best region for investment and development. According to the mid-term planning of Pioneer Group, Pioneer High-tech (Shanghai) Company Ltd, will continue with huge leaps of development in the next several years.  All employees working in Pioneer Shanghai strongly believe that under the great support and cares of Shanghai municipal government, Fengxian District Government, Shanghai Foreign Trade & Economy Ministry, and Shanghai General Industrial Development Zone, and with their own efforts, Pioneer (Shanghai) will enjoy a much brighter future.