Chengdu to build world-class hi-tech park

The Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone in Sichuan province is aiming to build itself into a world-class hi-tech park with gross industrial output reaching 1 trillion yuan ($163.9 billion) by 2020.

With a newly-launched ambitious project called "the third entrepreneurship stage" on Oct 16, the park will adopt a new development strategy in response to the rapid changing economic and technological situation.

The hi-tech zone has set a three-step plan for the ambitious project. According to the plan, the annual gross industrial output of the hi-tech zone will reach 400 billion yuan by 2015, and 600 billion yuan by 2017.

By 2020, the annual gross industrial output of the hi-tech zone will reach 1 trillion yuan, making up 33 percent of the whole city's industrial output.

Since its establishment in 1991, the hi-tech zone has gone through two stages of building and development, and it is now a leading base for IT, biomedicine and precision instrument manufacturing in western China.

"The Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone will grasp the opportunity of developing the strategic emerging industries in the 3rd entrepreneurship stage, and spend eight to 10 years to develop itself into a world-class hi-tech park," said Liu Chao, Party chief of the hi-tech zone.

The hi-tech zone will focus on the strategic emerging industries: mobile internet, core electronic devices manufacturing, software and information services, bio-pharmaceutical, biomedical engineering, aeronautic equipment, and advanced environmental protection.

The Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone is home to the biggest tax-free zone in central and western China. The foreign trade volume of the Chengdu High-Tech Comprehensive Bonded Zone totaled $26 billion in 2012, ranking third in the country and accounted for 44 percent of Sichuan's total, according to officials.

It has attracted more than 120 Fortune Global 500 and other internationally well-known companies, including IT giants like Intel, Foxconn, and Dell.