Hi-tech park to usher in new lifestyle in Chengdu

Unlike traditional industrial parks in other places in China, the Singapore-Sichuan Hi-tech Innovation Park is poised to usher in a new lifestyle in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan province.

The SSCIP will invite companies involved in high-end industries and non-manufacturing sectors, and plans to build the innovation park into a high-end, leisure, and vigorous community, according to Liu Sin Leng, chairman of Sino-Singapore (Chengdu) Innovation Park Development Co Ltd.

Following the focus to develop the digital media sector, SSCIP is concentrating its efforts on developing the biomedical ecosystem.

It signed MOUs in July to launch the film and gaming hubs as part of the digital media sector. It also made contact with the biomedical community in Singapore to explore strategic synergies in biomedical research between Singapore and Sichuan, according to the developer.

It also plans to develop six other pillar industries in years to come: IT, service outsourcing, precision engineering, environmental technology, finance, and training.

SSCIP is the first hi-tech industry cluster jointly developed by Singapore and Sichuan provincial government.

The project broke ground in May 2012, and will take about eight years to complete, covering an area of more than 10 square kilometers.

SSCIP will combine local industrial advantages while attracting international investors.

Sichuan has rich resources for pre-clinical and clinical research.

The province is abundant in biodiversity, which helps in medical research, according to Zhao Xinquan, head of the Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The institute has been involved in years of research and development in life sciences and biological resources, making Chengdu advanced in this area. The city is also a leader in biomedicine, as the Chinese Academy of Sciences has cooperated with Sichuan provincial government to develop this sector, according to Zhao.

As for the city's IT industry, revenue reached 377.7 billion yuan ($61 billion), making the city China's fourth IT center, according to a report jointly published in late May by Intel (Sichuan), the Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences, and the Chengdu Foreign Business Investment Association.

More than 20 percent of computers, 50 percent of laptop chips, and 70 percent of iPads in the world are made in Chengdu, it said.