The Urumqi state high-tech industrial zone was established in August 1992. It is one of China’s 53 state high-tech industrial zones approved by the State Council and is the only state-level high-tech industrial zone in Xinjiang.

The industrial zone, based in Urumqi city, has a planned industrial area of 31.1 square kilometers. In 2007, an area of 28 square kilometers was added for developing the 500 Reservoir New Materials Industrial Park. Since its establishment, the high-tech industrial zone has started to work from Xinjiang’s actual situation and has followed the objective of developing high-tech industries and new industries. It has kept a foothold on transforming competitive resources of Xinjiang and vigorously developing characteristic high-tech industries. Now, the high-tech zone has developed into an important base and a new modern technological town. It has become Xinjiang’s bright spot and growth example.

I. Current situation

The high-tech industrial zone was constructed by the municipal government, under support of the district government. The regional science and technology department deals with the zone’s daily work. The major scientific and technological projects are administrated by the Torch Program Center under the Ministry of Science and Technology. The high-tech industrial zone Party working committee and the industrial zone management committee are agencies dispatched by the Urumqi municipal Party committee and municipal government respectively. The management committee is a sub-prefectural organization that manages economic and social affairs in the industrial zone on behalf of the municipal Party committee and municipal government. It exercises the economic management authority at the municipal government level. It introduces a “closed management” system for integrated constructing quarters, technological parks, pioneering parks and export-oriented processing quarters in the industrial zone. The industrial and commercial bureau, state tax bureau, local tax bureau and quality and technology supervision bureau in the industrial zone are branches directly under the regional government and exercise provincial administration. The high-tech industrial zone implements a “one zone with multiple parks” strategy to seek greater development opportunities.

The high-tech industrial zone carries out the efficient “small government and big society” and “small institutions and big services” management system. There are 44 administrative staff and 77 staff in government affiliated institutions. Seven branch bureaus and one office constitute the high-tech industrial government bureau. One branch bureau will have many functions and one public servant works on more than one post and takes more than one duty. Staff workers compete to get the jobs and all staff workers are employed. This mechanism has essentially solved the pertinacious problem of the previous administrative mode and facilitated to cultivate the staff’s credibility and sense of service. It has set up a brand image in Xinjiang as a state high-tech industrial park.

Currently, the Urumqi state high-tech industrial zone has constructed the Diamond Mall Central Business District, the first and the second industrial parks and the northern industrial park adjacent to the trunk road. Flowers village software park, Xinjiang University technology park, Urumqi returned overseas student business park, and Urumqi-Central Asia technology cooperation park has formed the development mode consisting of the Diamond Mall Central Business District, industrial zone Torch Program innovation business park, northern industrial park and industrial parks outside of the industrial zone. The Diamond Mall Central Business District mainly collects social resources for technology information, economy and trade, and talents and finance. The priority is to develop the headquarters’ economy to materialize the service capacity of the industrial zone. The Torch Program innovation business park is based on the innovation center and returned overseas student business park to attract research institutions, technology enterprise incubators, and technology intermediary agencies to embody the innovation capacity. The northern industrial park mainly gathers new industrial enterprises meeting with the industrial orientations, particularly high-tech enterprises, to show the rapid development capacity of the industrial zone.

By the end of 2006, the high-tech industrial zone had reached cumulative revenues of 88.968 billion yuan from industry and trade. It achieved 18.03 billion yuan industrial output, 2.22 billion yuan financial revenues, and 2.38 billion yuan export values. All the economic indexes grew over 40 percent annually on average. So far, the industrial zone has 2,075 companies, including 37 companies invested in by foreigners.

II. Cooperation with central Asian countries

In 2005, the high-tech industrial zone set up the “strategic alliance of Chinese high-tech industries to develop the Central Asian market”. It aimed to unite all Chinese high-tech industrial zones to go out of the Chinese western gateway. In 2006, with support of Ministry of Science and Technology, the Urumqi state high-tech industrial zone successfully sponsored the “fourth state high-tech industrial zone management committee director joint conference and the second council of the strategic alliance of the Chinese high-tech industry to develop the Central Asian market”. There are 54 alliance members, including 38 state-level high-tech industrial zones. The Central Asia Science and Technology Cooperation Park (international scientific and technological cooperation incubator) went into operation smoothly. It also put in motion the Chinese and Russian versions of China’s high-tech industrial zone Central Asia Alliance network and small and medium-sized enterprise e-commerce platform. It has set up an office for the alliance in Kazakhstan, working as a permanent establishment and preparing for the first session of China high technology and product Central Asia Exhibition in 2007, which was sponsored by the Urumqi high-tech industrial zone. It will contribute to promoting Chinese high-tech companies to transfer capital, technologies and products to the Central Asian market.

III. Scientific and technological development

There are 84 high-tech companies in the high-tech industrial zone, totaling 75 percent in Xinjiang. Thirty companies are devoted to developing software products. From its establishment in 1992 to 2006, the high-tech industrial zone had 102 projects listed in the state and regional Torch Program. The high-tech zone has won 20 regional and 74 municipal awards for scientific and technological progress. Thirty-five projects won 22 million yuan in support from the innovation fund of the Ministry of Science and Technology. In 2006, four projects of the high-tech industrial zone won support from the Ministry of Science and Technology and gained 2.2 million yuan from the science and technology innovation fund.

With respect to scientific support and intellectual property rights, the high-tech industrial zone cashed 21 million yuan of industrial support rewards in 2006 to speed up cultivation of the high-tech industrialization. It authorized 24 patents in the year, making the patent technologies with independent intellectual property rights amount to 105 in the high-tech industrial zone. The Ministry of Science and Technology approved the technology research centers of Xinjiang Color Cotton and Xinjiang Zhonghe as state level enterprise research centers.

IV. Excellent service

The high-tech industrial zone adheres to the principle of simplified, unified and efficient operations. It has set up a management and service support system with “small organizations and big services” to supply one-stop services to companies. In the course of implementing the “start a new undertaking” strategy, the high-tech industrial zone has paid higher attention to improving the environment, optimizing services, and offering effective guidance, to supply sound development environments for companies entering the zone.

The high-tech industrial zone offers convenient services to companies by handling all procedures in the one service hall. The hall comprises 20 service windows from over 10 functional departments, including the commerce bureau, land bureau, planning and real estate bureau, construction and environment protection bureau, industry development bureau, finance bureau, labor and personnel bureau, state tax bureau, local tax bureau, industrial and commercial bureau, quality and technology supervision bureau, and e-government consulting center. The one-hall service pattern fully incarnates the principle of handling government affairs in an open, transparent, convenient and efficient approach.

The industrial zone supplies deputy services for key projects. It assigns special people to offer whole-course tracking and services to large projects which are going to settle in the zone. It gives priority to these projects, solves all problems in a timely manner, and facilitates rapid project completion

The innovation service center of the industrial zone furnishes support to returned overseas students. It follows the norms of the state high-tech innovation service center to construct an incubator base and improve service functions. It takes the Urumqi returned overseas students innovation park as a base to exert greater efforts for attracting overseas talents. It actively optimizes software and hardware environments for companies settling in the zone, fosters more high-tech companies and brands, and contributes to transforming scientific and technological achievements while flourishing high-tech industries. In addition to offering basic services as handling official business, making scientific research, production and operation sites, the innovation service center supplies services for research and production, policy and financing, market information, and personnel agent services.

The industrial zone website supplies companies with all-round online government services. The zone has fully constructed e-government and e-commerce platforms, and reached first class level in the country and the most advanced in the digital industrial park construction. With the e-government and e-commerce platforms, the industrial zone is able to furnish 7*24 full-time services to companies for online application and approval, overcoming the restrictions of time, and space and department separation. The open government and dynamic information release system ensures transparent government services by making public the accreditation contents, procedures, charge basis and standards, and committed time limit. The website also supplies companies in the industrial zone with free information on business investments, technological cooperation, talent exchange, free VIP company mailbox services, and trading information releases. These further satisfy company requirements on information.

During the 11th Five-year Plan period (2006-2010), the high-tech industrial zone tapped its regional competitiveness and, with an objective of elevating industrial concentration capacity and expanding the pillar industry, maximized the supporting facilities. It also extended the industrial chain in order to generate correlated and supporting advantageous industrial clusters. It continues to strengthen the industrial promotion capacity of the industrial zone as a state level high-tech industrial park. It vigorously pushed forward the “one industrial zone and multiple industrial parks” strategy, and abided by the principle of constructing a modern industrial park that is “highly credible, branded, toll free, and service oriented”. This makes the industrial zone a first class high-tech industrial base with specialized industrial parks in west China. It hopes to spread its influences to Central Asia.

For more detailed information, access www.uhdz.gov.cn or directly type in the name “Urumqi high-tech industrial zone.”