China’s ‘Silicon Valley’ expands

Widely known as “China’s Silicon Valley”, the Zhongguancun technology hub in Beijing has been expanded into the nearby Hebei province and Tianjin, in an attempt to integrate resources and talent from the three regions, as per the BeijingTianjin-Hebei integrated development strategy.

Founded in Hebei in April 2015, the Baoding Zhongguancun Innovation Center is the first of its kind to be built outside Beijing. About 90 companies and startup teams have opened offices in the center, half of which are from the Chinese capital.

Hu Dehui, general manager of the center, said: “We are dedicated to implementing the innovation culture of Zhongguancun into the projects. In that culture, change is the only thing unchanged, and innovation happens at all times.”

Founded in 2016, the Jiuwu Boron Industry Co at the center focuses on the research and application of boron-related technologies.

An Zefang, chairman of the company, said boron can be used in agriculture, medicines, military and the nuclear industry, but at the moment few companies were involved in the business, so the market is very promising.

His company’s current annual output value is about 100 million yuan ($14.6 million), but the Zhongguancun Innovation Center has helped him to find a local chemical company as a partner to invest 1.8 billion yuan to build a new boron fertilizer plant, which will increase the company’s annual output value to 600 million yuan.

An said he visited other industry parks before deciding to move to the center.

He said: “Officials from the