Nantong makes safe bet on innovation

Business leaders call for greater risk-taking as city strives to create new industry hub, Zhang Zhao reports.

The Nantong government is encouraging innovation, improving industry chains and integrating resources over the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) period to advance local industry structures, according to a city work report.

The city government is aiming to build Nantong into an innovation and industry base in Jiangsu province and a commercialization center for nearby Shanghai, "with a development model and economic system driven by innovation".

"The strong competitiveness of a company in the market depends on its powerful research and development capacity," said Liu Hong, deputy director of the city's Tongzhou district. "Otherwise, it has no standing room in the changing economy."

Wu Qiyun, deputy director of the science technology and industry department at Nantong University, said innovation should be conducted in the development of technologies, theories, policies and talent.

"Although the city government has taken great efforts to restructure the local economy in recent years, technical innovation is not open and intensive enough," Wu said. "Companies' awareness of innovation and their capacity to integrate resources should be improved."

He called for an "open innovation" strategy, introducing resources from outside the city, such as companies, venture capital firms or institutes from abroad, to support local companies and research institutions in their R&D efforts and help industrialize their research achievements. He also called for an industry innovation platform.

Nantong's local culture is conservative and lacks a social environment for innovation and entrepreneurship, said Wu, who added that the government should nurture an environment that encourages calculated risks.

Lu Jianhui, chairman of Gemei High-Tech Development Co, headquartered in Nantong, shared the same sentiment. "Being innovative has risks and failures may occur, but we need a group of pioneers to take these risks and a society that is tolerant of failure,” he said. "Companies, as main innovators, must be brave enough to take on new practices." Lu suggested that the manufacturing industry be the testing ground for innovations, making traditional factories "smarter" by introducing digitized and Internet-based manufacturing.

Xue Chi, president of ZTT Group, said companies are the "direct beneficiaries of innovations".

"Thanks to intelligent and automation reforms, companies will become more efficient at lower costs," he said. "At the same time, we will never stop exploring emerging sectors and will sharpen our competitive edge through innovations."

He added that his company is cooperating with domestic universities and research institutions.

Yang Yang, head of the Nantong Economic and Information Technology Commission, called for balance between upgrading traditional industries and the development of emerging sectors, and between advanced manufacturing and service sectors. To promote economic restructuring, he called for more investment, greater focus on advanced manufacturing and reforms in the supply of goods and services.

He added that the government will promote the integration of information technology and traditional industries, and introduce more nationally and globally renowned companies in cloud computing, big data, the Internet of Things and mobile Internet businesses.

The government will also encourage local companies to use IT methods and expand their business online. Technology will make greater contributions to Nantong’s economic growth this year, said Li Jiping, head of the city’s science and technology bureau, adding that the authority will focus on the development of the local high-tech zone and pay increasing attention to intellectual property rights protection and use.

The government expects the high-tech sector to generate 680 billion yuan ($103.4 billion) in output value this year, about 46 percent of total industrial output value.

Contact the writer at zhangzhao@chinadaily.com.cn