From its street crammed with electronics shops to its 336-square-kilometer nationally recognized center known as China's Silicon Valley, Zhongguancun Haidian has been a showcase of achievements for the world to see, for the past three decades, the vice-mayor of the Beijing Haidian district, recently remarked.

And, Zhongguancun's success story starts with the Haidian Science Park (HSP), which is at the core of Beijing's Zhongguancun National Innovation Demonstration Zone. It bristles with high-tech companies, talented people, and advanced management techniques, the vice-mayor, Yang Zhiqiang, noted.

The Haidian district has benefited from HSP, with a GDP of 146.2 billion yuan ($22.9 billion) in the first half of the year, up more than 10 percent from the same period of last year.

Zhongguancun has more than 1,400 companies with revenues of 100 million yuan each, which, together did around 700 billion yuan worth of business in the first half. That was a stunning 20 percent increase over the same period last year.

The total figure for all of Zhongguancun companies for the same period was nearly 800 billion yuan, up 19.3 percent.

The output value of the larger companies increased 10 percent, nearly half of that from high-tech businesses.

Meanwhile, the service sector grew 12 percent, and tourism revenues increased 11.3 percent.

In addition to the rapid growth in traditional industries, emerging sectors such as IT, financial services, e-business, and new materials grew around 20 percent in the first half.

Twenty-four of the HSP's companies went public during that period, while its companies got more than 4,200 patents, or more than half of the city's total.

The district has taken steps to improve the lives of local people, with more highways and two subway lines to improve transportation.

More than 11,000 jobs were provided in the first half and unemployment in the district has been held below 1 percent.

R&D, high-value industries

The northern part of Haidian contains a number of top companies and, thanks to them, "the area is a thriving industrial cluster".

More than 5 billion yuan was invested in the area in the first half of this year, a 67-percent increase over the same period last year. It attracted 29 major projects to the Cuihu Science Park, which was planned in the beginning of this year. Another 25 key projects were started in the software park.

There are some leaders among the new materials companies and research organizations, such as the AT&M Co Ltd and Beijing Institute of Aeronautics Materials, as well as incipient cloud computing service providers, such as UFIDIA Software.

There is also WBL Peking University BioTech Co Ltd, whose traditional Chinese medicine products are on the US market.

To the zone's decision makers, education is a priority and there are many policies that provide an incentive for improving education facilities, building new schools and kindergartens, or training better teachers.

The local government has a "science town" in the works for an approximately 75-square-kilometer piece of ground in the middle of HSP. It will focus on life science, new materials, aerospace technology, and IT technologies.

The science town houses top universities and research institutes, along with many talented people and is expected to cooperate with universities in founding R&D centers. It already has 11 such institutes, including the emerging industries technology institute, which cooperates with University of Science and Technology Beijing; the Internet industry institute, which cooperates with Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications; and the advanced industrial technologies institute, which is affiliated with Beihang University.

There are also 21 industrial parks covering various fields.

The HSP administrative committee is encouraging building research facilities related to emerging industries, and had 37 contracts for projects in this area in the first half of this year.

Future developments

HSP's goal is to do better with its resources and help its companies be more competent, by balancing economic and social benefits," Yang said.

In the future, HSP's management will come up with more innovative ideas so the area will become a center for innovation, research and production, and a place that allows companies to share resources to help them grow.

"In the future, Zhongguancun will lead the nation, and even the world, in innovation and HSP will take an active role in that," said Yang. More effort needs to be made to attract talented people, investment and major projects, with improved services."

(China Daily 09/14/2011 page43)