Modern industries drive growth in thriving Chengdu high-tech zone
The Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone, a major growth engine for the Southwest China city, is building up an internationally influential modern industrial system to support local urban development.
According to statistics from the zone’s administration, the local economy grew 9 percent in the first half of this year, with the value of its industrial output reaching 146.46 billion yuan ($22.36 billion).
At a meeting in July, the local authorities announced the aim to bring more than 100 projects to the zone, with at least one 10 billion yuan mega industrial project attracted each quarter.
Officials at the zone said they will continue to focus on a number of key sectors, including biomedicines, information technology, equipment manufacturing and financing.
Biomedicine
The groundbreaking ceremony for the Medtronic Innovation Center was held on Oct 10, marking the global medical equipment giant’s third project in the Chengdu high-tech zone.
The company, headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, was the first Fortune Global 500 company in the medical equipment industry to open an office in the zone. It launched its first project in 2014 and the second in 2016.
CEO Omar Ishrak said Medtronic hopes local doctors will master cutting-edge medical technologies to serve their patients more proficiently.
Chris Lee, president of Greater China at Medtronic, said the company attaches great importance to China’s medical market, which is full of opportunities. He said the new innovation center will bring more resources to China’s central and western regions to improve local medical businesses.
Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, has listed the bioindustry as a key emerging sector of strategic importance. It is building an industrial chain focusing on biomedicines.
The Tianfu International Bio-town, developed by the high-tech zone and the Shuangliu district government, has attracted more than 70 projects since its establishment in March 2016. Together, they drew in total contracted investments exceeding 90 billion yuan. The projects include three teams led by Nobel Prize winners and two led by academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
In May, 11 projects in the biotown started construction, representing a combined investment of 11.5 billion yuan.
The biomedicine industry in the Chengdu high-tech zone generated an output value of nearly 8 billion yuan in the first half of this year, growing 27.2 percent year-on-year. The growth rate of the whole year is expected to hit 15 percent or higher.
The administration of the high-tech zone decided to launch a 10 billion yuan foundation to support the bioindustry, according to a report it unveiled in July.
IT sector
The IT sector is also making an increasing contribution to Chengdu’s economy. In the first seven months of this year, the sector generated an output value of more than 130 billion yuan, up 20.6 percent yearon-year.
The robust growth of the sector started in 2003, when the world’s top chipmaker Intel announced it would build a plant in the Chengdu high-tech zone for packaging and testing chips. The plant became operational in 2005 and the revenue of the city’s industry topped 50 billion yuan for the first time that year.
In the following decade, the industry’s annual growth rate remained above 20 percent, with many leading domestic and international IT companies attracted to Chengdu, including BOE, Foxconn, Dell, Lenovo and Texas Instruments.
United States semiconductor manufacturer GlobalFoundries invested about $10 billion in the zone in February to produce 12-inch semiconductor wafers, which are key components in electronic devices.
In May, Chengdu BOE completed China’s first sixth-generation flexible active-matrix organic LED display production line. Executives from the company said the technology will be a major trend in the future.
The production line is designed to produce more than 90 million flexible displays a year, with annual output value exceeding 30 billion yuan.
IT solution provider New H3C Group invested 1 billion yuan to launch a research institution in Chengdu in July, focusing on 5G communication and next-generation storage technology.
In August, Siemens decided to invest in Chengdu to establish an industrial software development center and an intelligent manufacturing innovation center. It aims to build up an intelligent manufacturing cluster, working alongside local universities and companies.
According to a government report unveiled in July, the IT industry will become Chengdu’s first sector to generate annual output value of 1 trillion yuan by 2020.
The administration of the high-tech zone said it will continue to introduce internationally influential and competitive projects, focusing on Fortune Global 500 companies, industry leaders, renowned entrepreneurs and innovative teams, especially those involved in new economic sectors, such as big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence.
New economy industries
New technologies, including mobile internet, cloud computing, big data and the internet of things, have led to reform in many traditional businesses, such as financing, telecommunications, education and retail, creating so-called “new economy industries” and new business models.
These emerging sectors generated output value of 430 billion yuan last year in the Chengdu high-tech zone, focusing on a wide range of industries, such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, 3-D printing and advanced environmental protection.
There are currently more than 150 big data-related companies in the zone, along with many AI projects.
The local administration unveiled policies to boost such new economy industries in July, the first of the kind in China’s central and western regions.
Officials said the area boasts a solid industrial foundation and an advanced innovation system. These have paved the way for the development of the new economy industries.