The Acer Group of Taiwan has been gearing up for the establishment of an industrial supply chain for notebook computers in China’s Chongqing City of Sichuan Province. The move is expected to significantly boost the global competitiveness of the world’s second largest notebook supplier.

Senior executives of Acer, which now ranks among the world’s top 500 enterprises, have organized a delegation of four major manufacturing partners for a trip to Chongqing to conduct in-depth study on investment environment since Nov. 11, according to officials at Chongqing’s Economy and Information Commission.

t is understood that the four major contract manufacturers of PC products invited by Acer to Chongqing are the “new faces” that have not yet set up operations in Chongqing.

It was reported that Acer has selected Chongqing for its second business operations headquarters and manufacturing base in China. A formal contract will be signed with the Chongqing Municipal Government in December this year, said industry sources.

The strategy of establishing a new center of business operations in Chongqing in southwestern China is not just a step to expand Acer’s business activities and market in China, but will also be a crucial move to achieve its goal of becoming the world’s top supplier of notebooks.

To meet worldwide market demand, Acer plans to farm out orders to contract manufacturers, a similar tactic taken by Hewlett-Packard Co. of the US. HP is currently the leading supplier of personal computers on the world market and has also recently moved to Chongqing.

China’s trade surplus with its trading partners widened as much as 13 percent to $102.2 billion in the fourth quarter, according to the preliminary data released on Monday by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE).

The surplus figure was almost unchanged from the third quarter’s $102.3 billion surplus, which was more than double the year-earlier figure, the Wall Street Journal reported, quoting SAFE data.

China’s widening trade surplus against the U.S. has been a matter of contention between the two largest economies of the world. The U.S. has accused China of keeping its currency artificially low to give competitive advantage to its exporters.

However, runaway growth in China’s inflation is expected to reduce the country’s trade surplus with the U.S. and other trading partners. There are already reports that Chinese shipments to its Western trading partners are seeing a relative lull in recent weeks as prices of export items have gone up thanks to an unprecedented commodities boom.

Chinese inflation is around five percent currently, prompting the government to unveil a slew of measures to prevent the economy from overheating.

.Reference resource: Click Here.