Location proves profitable for zone

Lying in central Yunnan province - the passageway to Southeast Asia - the Kunming National High-tech Industries Development Zone is taking advantage of its geographic location and the presence of a large amount of natural and mineral resources in its home province to make a "big income within a small area". It also won a reward given out by the Ministry of Land and Resources early this year for the economical efficient use of land resources.

Dong Baotong, director of the Kunming National High-tech Industries Development Zone

About 5,400 enterprises had come to the zone by the end of 2011. Three of them had an annual income of $1.57 billion, and another 54 had an annual income of more than $1.57 million.

Called the "kingdom of nonferrous metals", Yunnan contains many great opportunities for manufacturers. The high-tech zone's nonferrous and precious metals industries had $7.8 billion in industrial output in 2011, making up more than half of the zone's total output.

Of its five branch function areas, two are related to biotechnology. The zone had nearly 600 biotech companies by the end of 2011. And the biomedicine industry there had about $2 billion worth of output in 2011, making up 15 percent of the zone's total output.

Dong Baotong, director of the high-tech zone, said work should be done to explore Yunnan's special local herbs and its unique recipes. Those could include new products made partly of Yunnan baiyao, a white powder that is used to treat open wounds, as well as other herb products such as essence oils and perfumes.

"We should make full use of this passageway to Southeast Asia to extend our bio-industry to the outside," he said, adding that the biotech zone is expected to make $11 billion in general income in 2015.

Another of the high-tech zone's new areas has been under construction in the southeast part of central Kunming since 2008. It occupies 87 square kilometers and is estimated to contain enough room for more than 60 projects. Some of those are already under way and the new area is expected to have $28.2 billion in general income by the end of 2015.

Dong said his next step will be to attend to water science and technology.

"I was inspired by the water pollution controls they use at Dianchi Lake in Kunming," he said.

The lake has been severely polluted since the 1990s. Years of maintenance and of using wetland filters to clean it have not been enough to return it to its original state.

"If we could introduce more water science and technology companies into Kunming and overcome these difficulties - and even make the water drinkable - we will be achieving something remarkable and our experience will surely benefit more people in the country," he said.