Manfred H. Krost, now a 78-year-old German expert in roller bearing, now owns a consulting company in Taicang [Photo provided to China Daily]

Manfred H. Krost, the founder and owner of Krost Business Consulting (Taicang) Co Ltd, has passed his seventh year in Taicang, the county-level city that is though not quite big but said by him to have sound infrastructure, pleasant cityscape as well as a helpful government.

He arrived at Taicang in 1996 when serving as a staff for the Schaeffler, a famous leader in the world market manufacturing and supplying bearings for the automotive sector.

Taicang means a lot for him as he does for the city.

"I come from a small town that is located in Kaiserslautern of south central Germany. It is found quite quiet, secluded and fresh everywhere in my hometown. Taicang seemed to me clean and beautiful when I firstly set my foot here. Also the free and easygoing passersby who always wear modest and gentle smile on their lips left me a very deep impression at that instant." Krost said.

After retiring from his position as a general manager at Schaeffler in 2004, at his 65 years old, Krost decided to start his own business consulting company in Taicang. He and his organization were said to work widely on helping German executives operating family-owned and emerging companies to seek investment opportunities in China.

Krost made a lot of earnest and devoted efforts in order to promote Taicang to German investors.

Krost gives an excellent and sincere keynote speech explaining the favorable location, investment environment and great prospects Taicang has and sharing the success made by Schaeffler corporation in Taicang to people home when invited to speak as a guest at the promotion conference in Germany launched by Suzhou municipal government. [Photo provided to China Daily]

And thanks to his enthusiastic "matchmaking" endeavors, up to now he and his company have provided consulting consulting and operating license services for more than 70 German enterprises.

And Krost got awarded with the titles of Taicang's honorary citizen and ambassador for inviting business and investment in Taicang with all the contribution he made to boosting Taicang.

Krost and his Chinese staff [Photo provided to China Daily]

Sited at the center of the Yangtze River Delta area, Taicang though small with only an area of 809 square kilometers and a population amounting to 470,000, has been reported to be ranked among Forbes magazine’s top 50 commercial cities on the mainland.

The city at present has attracted plus 500 U.S. and European companies to build subsidiaries or factories there, and one third of the total are from Germany. Taicang has been made the most Germany intensive destination in Jiangsu province and has Germany's third largest center in China after Beijing and Shanghai and the eighth largest in the world outside of Germany itself.