Govt pushes high-tech as economic powerhouse

The city government of Jinan, the capital of Shandong province, is striving to push forward the development of its high-tech industries to make them the powerhouse for the city's economic growth.

"High-tech industries represent the future of Jinan's economic growth," said Jinan Mayor Yang Luyu. "We need to rely on science and innovation to boost the development of such industries, and our target is to develop them into industrial sectors each with a total output value of more than 100 billion yuan ($16.1 billion) in the near future."

Statistics from the city's science and technology authority show it has 538 enterprises in the high-tech industry, with total output value of 219.3 billion yuan in 2014, up 13.61 percent from the previous year.

The city has more than 60 universities and colleges and nearly 100 research institutes. It also boasts 514 high-tech firms and 806 research institutes at enterprise level. They constitute a key part of the city's technological innovation system.

The city has also established a number of major platforms for science and technology innovation, including the Shandong Academy of Information and Communication Technology, the State Platform for Drug Research and Development, the National Supercomputer Center in Jinan, Jinan Cloud Computing Center and Shandong Institute of Quantum Science and Technology.

As the leading force for economic growth in Jinan, the Jinan High-Tech Industrial Development Area is expected to speed up development of electronic information, biomedicines and high-end equipment manufacturing and modern service industries, with each of the sectors targeting an output value of 100 billion yuan annually in the next five to 10 years.

To rapidly develop the electronic information industry, the development zone will focus on sectors including integrated circuitry, software, industry chains relating to the application of the Beidou navigation system, intelligent manufacturing and e-commerce. The target is to develop the zone into a national-level industry park for these sectors.

To accelerate the growth of biomedicine industries, the zone plans to construct several industry parks for biomedicines, anti-neoplastic drugs and medical equipment. The investment in each industry park is expected to exceed 1 billion yuan, and more than 600 enterprises are expected to operate in the parks.

Industries such as robotics, nuclear energy equipment and numerical control machines are also taking shape in the development zone.

Ma Yuxing, the Party chief of the Jinan High-Tech Industrial Development Area, said the area has also gradually become a destination for company headquarters, high-end commerce, finance, modern services and cultural creative industries.

Jinan-Qingdao High-Speed Railways announced on June 30 that it would establish its headquarters in the zone. The total registered capital of the company is 30 billion yuan.

The central commercial district in the development area has attracted nearly 450 companies to relocate there, with total registered capital of 120 billion yuan.

The development area registered a total GDP of 54.8 billion yuan in 2014, up 10 percent from a year earlier. It has 219 high-tech enterprises, almost 40 percent of the city's total.

The high-tech area is now recruiting talent globally in order to increase its competitiveness. It already has 29 experts listed in China's Medium- and Long-Term Talent Development Plan, and 56 scholars who were brought to the area through a special program that recruits talented professionals from overseas.

xuwei@chinadaily.com.cn