Sleepy suburb transforms into high-tech hub

Xi’an High-tech Industrial Development Zone, one of China's top zones at a national level, embraced its 25th anniversary since the establishment in 1991.

Twenty-five years ago, the current zone with numerous buildings and lights was a suburb area without any asphalt street. Now, it is the most developed district in Xi’an, capital of China’s northwestern Shaanxi province.

The residents in the high-tech zone have the highest income averagely in the city. The past suburb is now the center of new city in Xi’an.

As Chinese government attaches importance to innovation and entrepreneurship increasingly, Xi’an High-tech Industrial Development Zone, which has helped thousands of new start-ups to grow and develop, has seen an even faster growth in the coming years.

The zone targets at keeping an annual economic growth of 13 percent during the 13th Five-Year-Plan period (2016-2020), according to authority of the zone.

The companies registered in the zone will reach total revenue of 2.5 trillion yuan annually with a yearly growth of 15 percent by 2020. The GDP growth of zone will be around 13 percent, which is higher than the national level in the following five years. The budgetary financial revenue of the zone will reach 20 billion yuan with an annual increase of 15 percent, according to the plan.

The self-innovation level will be greatly improved. By 2020, the research and development investment of the zone will account for 6 percent of the overall investment.

The zone expects that the new added invention patents authorization will reach 7,000 by 2020.

“Meanwhile, the environment and conditions for start-ups will be even better,” said Zhao Hongzhuan, head of the zone. “During the 12th Five-Year-Plan period (2011-15), the zone has introduced 118,000 skilled talents. The zone has already become the center of talents in northwestern China.”

In 2015, there were 372,000 people working in the zone. Up to 78 percent of them have bachelor’s degrees. The zone has attracted high-end talents with 40 working stations for post doctors, which ranks the top in central and western China.

The authority of the zone said it is working on building 50 national-level engineering centers, technology development centers and labs by 2020 as the innovation ability grows in the area.

During the 13th Five-Year-Plan period, the industrial structure has improved a lot in the zone thanks to the rich talents supply and supportive policies. In the last year, the proportion of the service industry has surpassed the secondary industry, accounting for 54 percent of the total, in the zone.

Particularly, the revenue of the modern service industry in the zone was 380 billion yuan in the last year, accounting for 43 percent of the four major industries - namely electronic information, advanced manufacturing, biomedical and modern service. The modern service industry has various sectors including scientific technology, financial and innovative design. Among them, the scale of scientific technology service has been growing quickly. In the last year, the technology service accounted for more than 40 percent of all service businesses.

Zhao said the zone is an important industrial base for semiconductors in China and a manufacturing center of the world’s smart phones at present. The software park within the zone has become a national software export base. Thousands of software companies locate in the park, providing high-quality products and services to the world.

Xi'an has thousands of enterprises engaged in the IT industry, which has attracted many world-famous IT enterprises, such as Applied Materials, Qualcomm, GE, Erisson, Micon, Walsin, Simmtech Electronics, NEC, ZTE and Huawei. Most of them locate at the high-tech zone.

In 2015, the revenue of electronic information industry of the high-tech zone reached 199 billion yuan.

During the following years, the zone will continue to improve its internationalization level. By the end of 2020, its import and export volume will reach $45 billion with an annual growth of 15 percent. The paid-in foreign investment in the zone will reach $12 billion in total by then.

The zone is the most energetic area in Xi’an. Hundreds of thousands of young people are making great effort and working hard here to realize their dreams. They create their own fortune stories with countless failures and successes.

The government has been working on improving the living conditions and natural environment in the zone, aiming at providing a green place for people who are working here.

According the local authority, the public infrastructure will further improved in the zone in the following years.

The public transportation will become more than half of the residents’ choices by 2020 due to the good public services. Besides, the public library will own averagely 2.3 books for each resident and hospitals will provide no less than 8 sickbeds for each 1,000 residents in the zone.