Chengdu gives biomedicine a healthy future

Chengdu is set to become a biomedical center as international developers recognize the city's growing appeal to international players.

Industrial zones like the Sino-Singapore (Chengdu) Innovation Park, or SSCIP for short, are laying a solid foundation for this emerging high-tech industry.

“The park will focus on attracting more biomedicine industry firms to make it an international platform for R&D and innovation,” Low Sin-Leng, chairwoman of the Sino-Singapore (Chengdu) Innovation Park Development Co Ltd, told an audience of up to 100, mostly from Singapore, at the 12th World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention, which opened in Chengdu on Wednesday.

Low's company is responsible for overall planning, construction and marketing of the SSCIP.

The blueprint for the park's development is in step with Chengdu's strategy to become western China's leader in the high-tech and emerging industries.

The SSCIP is also reaching out to biomedicine institutions and firms in Singapore in a bid to foster cooperation between Sichuan and the leading Southeast Asian economy, Low said.

In addition to biomedicine, the park will focus on developing seven other pillar industries too — IT, service outsourcing, new digital media, precision engineering, environmental technology, finance and training.

The park's plan also shows Chengdu's role as a versatile economy that does not just rely on manufacturing and other traditional sectors.

Deng Ling, a professor of economics at Sichuan University, said diversification is the key reason why Chengdu has maintained its momentum even as growth slowed throughout the country last year.

Chengdu's GDP, according to the city government, grew 10.3 percent to reach 440.8 billion yuan ($72.03 billion) in the first half of this year, 2.7 percentage points higher than the national average growth rate.

The Sino-Singapore (Chengdu) Innovation Park is located in the core of Chengdu's Tianfu New Area, a huge swath of land in the city's prosperous southern urban area intended to accelerate its development.

The park is designed to be an innovative area within a city that provides a model for coexistence among industry, culture and nature in perfect harmony with one another.

With an area of up to 10.34 square kilometers, the park is a milestone in the collaboration between Singapore and Chengdu. It also sets the benchmark for clusters of industries with high added value in western China.

Between 120,000 and 150,000 people are expected to work and reside in the park.