High-tech Zones' Quantum Leap in 2024

With their GDP reaching 19.3 trillion RMB in 2024, China's national high-tech industrial development zones made a quantum leap in economic development, industrial innovation and high-tech industry development last year, according to a press conference by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on February 26.

Comprising 14.3 percent of the national GDP, these high-tech zones' GDP enjoyed an increase of 7.6 percent year on year in nominal terms. The industrial added value of these zones hit 9.8 trillion RMB in 2024, making up 24.1 percent of the entire country's total.

A batch of leading key programs and application demonstration projects were implemented by the 178 national high-tech zones. National and local co-built innovation centers in embodied AI robotics and humanoid robots have also been established.

About 50 percent of China's R&D investment in enterprises and the number of patents for invention come from national high-tech zones, where original technologies and products like embodied AI robotic prototypes and on-chip brain-computer interfaces have been continuously emerging.

Cross-zone industrial cooperation will be strengthened with the proposed establishment of high-tech zone alliances in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta and the northeastern part of the country.

Meanwhile, the scale of the new generation information technology industrial cluster in Beijing's Zhongguancun, aka "China's Silicon Valley," has reached one trillion RMB. The integrated circuits industry in the Shanghai Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park and the optoelectronic industry in Wuhan East Lake High-Tech Development Zone constitute 20 percent and 50 percent respectively of the scale of China's corresponding industries.

By the end of 2024, the national high-tech zones had gathered 33 percent of the country's high-tech enterprises, 46 percent of "little giant" firms, the novel elites of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that specialize in a niche market and boast cutting-edge technologies and 67 percent of unicorn firms.

The MIIT will support the acceleration in formation of new quality productive forces by national high-tech zones and continue to play their demonstrative and leading role, according to Wu Jiaxi, deputy head of the planning department at MIIT.

A deep communication mechanism between these zones and national strategic sci-tech forces is to be established. Additionally, more high-energy innovation platforms are to be planned, and a large group of talented personnel and innovation teams are to be gathered and nurtured in these zones. Original and disruptive sci-tech innovation is also to be strengthened to overcome key and core technological barriers.

Another step forward is the strengthening of the principal role of enterprises in sci-tech innovation. This includes fostering more world-class enterprises and leading sci-tech enterprises, strengthening the nurturing of gazelle enterprises and building up unicorn enterprises, and spurring the development of high-tech enterprises and SMEs that specialize in a niche market and boast cutting-edge technologies.

The commercialization of sci-tech achievements is expected to be reinforced and more financial capital channeled toward investment in small enterprises and hard tech, with an emphasis on early investment for longer periods.

National high-tech zones are also to nurture emerging industries, plan for future industries and deepen cooperation with Belt and Road sci-tech parks, fostering high-tech industrial clusters with global competitiveness.

Source: Science and Technology Daily