Industrial heartland reinvents itself for new-age technology

"Our company resumed operations on Feb 14 and now about 99 percent of our employees are back to work, except for those who are still in Wuhan, Hubei province," said Que Wenxiu, president of the company.

SND was founded in 2018, with a total investment of 1 billion yuan. It has a designed production capacity of 100,000 special vehicles a year, which are used in such fields as cold-storage transport, street cleaning, snow removal and emergency rescue.

Despite COVID-19's negative influence on the market, the company recently secured orders for 286 cold-storage vehicles, according to Que.

The executive noted that his company started trial operation last year, with only 48 vehicles produced.

"As formal operation begins, we are expecting to produce 5,000 vehicles this year, with an estimated revenue of 1.5 billion yuan," Que said.

The executive said he is optimistic about the new energy vehicle industry, especially in sectors for special vehicles.

In the IT sector, local computer manufacturer 100Trust signed an agreement with the Taiyuan-based North University of China for all-round strategic cooperation.

NUC, formerly known as North China Institute of Technology, is a multidisciplinary university with expertise in IT research. 100Trust is a manufacturer of computers, servers and components based on China's independently developed central processing units like Kunpeng developed by Huawei and Loongson by the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"The collaboration with a strong research institute will improve our competitiveness in the domestic market," said Wang Xianchao, founder and board chairman of 100Trust.

He added that the partnership will also make 100Trust an important base of research and training for NUC.

The authorities in Shanxi made it clear that the IT industry is a vital sector for the province to foster new growth areas and upgrade traditional industries.

A document recently released by the provincial government called IT-based innovation "the No 1 program in Shanxi" as it can lead to "a beneficial ecosystem for startups in many emerging industries".

Guo Yanjie contributed to this story.