6/11/2010, "I just founded a new company, when you have time, remember to care about our company." Several days ago, I received a short message from a friend who doesn’t contact me  very often.

I couldn't help sighing when I received that message. Only early this year when I recognized him, he is still an usual employee in an optical communication company in Wuhan. Only in several months, he becomes a president of a new company. I am eagerly to know his whole process on starting this new business, but he is so busy that I can't catch him to know more. So I collected some information on creating a new company in Wuhan, China's optical valley. To my surprise, it is really simply to launch a new business in Wuhan today.

Yesterday in his office, I finally met this old friend. His face lighted up although he looked blacker. He was very talkative. He introduced his new bright office, his partner and his employees. The technology VP title on his name card let me realized his change. According to him, his new optical component company will first be a buy&sell company, then try to set up his own factory. "In optical valley, there are many optical communication companies, there is already a matured industry, if you can work hard, you can always find your market. " Said he.

The friend told me there are many advantages to set up companies in Wuhan. First, Wuhan has many talented persons. There are tens of universities including Central China Science and Technology University, Wuhan Telecommunication and Post Institute in this area. Wuhan is one of the cities who has the most universities in mainland China. The second is that Wuhan has already had many fiber optics companies including Fiberhome, WTD, Accelink, HG Genuine, Oplink, Opus etc. Not only fiber optics companies, Wuhan is also attracting many other high tech companies including Huawei, Microsoft, Foxconn to set up their offices and factories here. The third, Wuhan has the title of national forest city in mainland China. The living cost and environment is continuously improving, which attracts talented persons very much. The forth, Wuhan has very convenient transport network. From Wuhan you can go to many big cities of China in just several hours by train. The last, China's Central government is giving Wuhan more attractive policy advantage.  Hubei provincial and Wuhan city government are also introducing more new policies to attract investors and other talented persons. For example, from talented person service center of Wuhan, the threshold to start a new business in Wuhan is lowering. The center is also providing managing and marketing training for those new entrepreneurs.

Several days ago, I once talked with another friend about creating new enterprises in Wuhan. He told me that his company is a good example. The company started up from 4 employees in year 2007. Beginning from looking for new customers, they developed the company step by step. "We often faced failure, but there are so many opportunities here, small company is more flexible. If you can find an opportunity, you can develop. " Said he.

(Reedited and translated from Andy Liu's article published on China Fiber Optics Online)