"Guian New Area in Southwest China's Guizhou province is taking active measures to stimulate the development of integrated circuitry, from preferential policies to creating more development opportunities," said Lin Hao, deputy head of the Department of Science and Technology of Guizhou province and a Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) member.

Lin's statement was made during the 2018 National People's Congress (NPC) and CPPCC Annual Legislative and Political Advisory Sessions, which are underway in Beijing until March 20.

Lin also called for national approval of Guian New Area as a key place for the development of integrated circuitry in his speech.

Guian has positioned itself as an important economic growth pole in West China, a new highland for economic openness in the Chinese mainland and a national demonstration place of ecologic development, since its establishment in January 2014.

Recent years have seen a number of technology giants settling in Guian, including Apple, Huawei, Tencent, Foxconn, Microsoft, IBM and China's three national telecommunication enterprises.

In January 2016, HXT Semiconductor Technology Co Ltd was established in Guian, thanks to the cooperation between Guizhou and Qualcomm.

"It is a significant advance for integrated circuitry development in Guian New Area," said Lin, as he pointed out that Guizhou produced about 151.76 million integrated circuits in 2017, a year-on-year increase of 29.7 percent and that the province now is home to seven scaled enterprises in the industry.

Visitors inspect products of HXT Semiconductor Technology displayed at the China International Big Data Expo, held in Guiyang on May 25-28, 2017. [Photo/gog.cn]

During the meeting, Lin suggested that manufacturing, packaging, and design testing should be transferred to Guizhou and said that Guian hopes to become a key area for national integrated circuitry development.