Staff members carry out experiments at Changchun BCHT Biotechnology. [Photo provided to CHINADAILY]

Government efforts

The Jilin government has firmly implemented an innovation-driven strategy and highlighted the role of technologies in supply-side reform and industrial upgrading since late 2012.

Jilin has set up nine provincial-level key laboratories to lead research in the fields of big data, cloud computing, advanced manufacturing and precise medicine. It also set up 12 provincial technological innovation centers to boost development in the sectors of equipment production, bio-medicine and modern agriculture.

The province also built 27 work stations for academicians to attract top-notch talent and professionals, an amount five times higher than five years ago, according to government figures.

The provincial government has attached great importance to making sure that its efforts in piloting test results, R&D and achievements, as well as fostering startups, can be viable commercially.

A total of 426 companies, including Chang Guang, and innovation platforms, including high-tech parks, technology transfer centers and technological innovation bases, are settled in an integrated innovation compound encouraged by the local government, which together can generate nearly 3.3 billion yuan industrial output a year.

The government is also putting its weight behind big data and e-commerce, in order to make them new areas of growth for the local economy.

Changchun New Area signed an agreement with a local company last June to build a big data industrial park to promote regional smart governance and digital economy.

In July last year, the Northeast China ecology big data center was launched in Changchun, aiming to use new generation information technology, including cloud computing, internet of things, mobile internet and big data analysis, to create a new management mode for the forestry industry.