High-tech park growing local innovation

A production line of Molex Interconnect (Chengdu) Co Ltd, which is in the Chengdu High-Tech Industrial Development Zone. The zone aims to be a world-class technology park with gross industrial output of 1 trillion yuan by 2020. Xinhua

Chengdu's primary goal is to catch up with Shenzhen and Tianjin in boosting exports

Chengdu plans to launch more high-tech enterprises over the next three years to drive the city's economy and innovative strengths amid China's industrial upgrading.

Home to 252 multinational Fortune 500 companies, including Intel Corp, Suez Group, Siemens AG and Toyota Motor Corp, Chengdu is taking steps to enhance innovation in local companies by learning from the foreign businesses. The goal is to catch up with such longer-established rivals as Shenzhen, Dalian and Tianjin in China's eastern region.

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Tang Hua, director of Chengdu's science and technology bureau, said the city will invest 1 billion yuan ($162 million) this year to support industries such as e-commerce, pharmaceuticals, 3-D printing, vehicles and new materials to boost exports and build more national brands.

"Carrying out labor-intensive manufacturing will not benefit the local economy in the long term because many export-oriented factories already are uncompetitive due to rising wages and weak demand for low-end products in international markets," Tang said.

The Chengdu government is focusing on developing company leaders in high-tech fields, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises.

It also is offering subsidies of between 200,000 yuan and 1 million yuan for new product development to local companies. Because carrying out research and development for pharmaceutical products is a lengthy and expensive process, the maximum subsidy for this sector was raised to 4.2 million yuan for a single product.

Supported by favorable government policies and surging export orders, particularly from Europe and the United States, the output value of Chengdu's high-tech industry hit 512 billion yuan in 2013, an increase of 25 percent from the previous year, data from Chengdu's municipal development and reform commission showed.

Electronic information, biological medicine, new energy, new materials, optical and electrical integration, aerospace and other strategic emerging industries accounted for 70 percent of the industry's total output.