'Technology and innovation center for the world'

Zhongguancun Software Park

Tsinghua Science Park

Workers on the production line at one of the Zhongguancun National Innovation Demonstration Zone's companies. Many high-tech enterprises in the zone mean a great opportunity for people with skills.

With high-tech firms, R&D centers, and abundant education resources, the Beijing's Zhongguancun National Innovation Demonstration Zone has now been declared a new engine behind economic development in the nation's capital.

In turning itself into a national center of innovation, Zhongguancun has had the support of China's State Council and policies aimed at attracting more talented people and building up a science town.

It has drawn up development plans and has been pushing the "six plus one" (one creativity center, six pilot policies) system.

With all those resources, it has bigger, more ambitious plans - it wants to become more than just a local technology and innovation center. In fact, the administration has plans for making it "a global technology and innovation center".

Total industrial output of Zhongguancun's companies amounted to 236.6 billion yuan ($37 billion) in the first six months of this year, an increase of 13.6 percent over the same period last year. Total profits grew 17.3 percent, to 49.7 billion yuan.

Over the same period, its large companies made 790.5 billion yuan, an increase of nearly 20 percent over the same period last year.

Many emerging sectors, such as software, biomedicine, and environmental protection, have grown a lot. The figure for advanced manufacturing was nearly 30 percent in the first six months of this year.

The service sector also grew more than 20 percent, in the first six months of this year, earning 480 billion yuan.

The zone's companies generated 264.4 billion yuan worth of industrial added value output last year, contributing 23.5 percent to the city's GDP. They also had 1.6 trillion yuan in income, or 2.3 times more than that for 2005.

Meanwhile, energy consumption per 10,000 yuan of added value output, for Zhongguancun's companies, was only 20 percent of the city's average.

Last year, Zhongguancun companies signed technological cooperation contracts worth nearly 158 billion yuan, accounting for almost 40 percent of the nation's total. And, around 80 percent of those contracts were with companies or organizations outside Beijing.

In just the first five months of this year, more than 97 billion yuan worth of technological cooperation contracts were signed in the Zhongguancun National Innovation Demonstration Zone, a 47.6-percent increase from the same period last year.

The number of patents given to companies in Zhongguancun grew 16.7 percent, from the same last year period.

The Zhongguancun administrators have what is called a "Gazelle Program" to help companies with real potential in financing. Those who have benefited from the program had more than 30 billion yuan in income last year, and an average growth rate of more than 20 percent.

They have also built a science town in the middle of Haidian district where the zone was originated, on a 75-square-kilometer area, to hold around 40 percent of Zhongguancun's companies. They include high-tech giants such as Microsoft and the China Datang Corp, and around 8,000 smaller companies. Their focus will be life sciences, new energy vehicles, cloud computing, and aerospace technology.

Financing

To support all this, Zhongguancun is trying to build itself into a hub of tech-financial innovation.

The science town already has about 1,000 companies that finance technology and venture capital firms, and at least 170 equity investment firms, with funds worth more than 100 billion yuan in all.

The zone is looking for more accounting firms, law firms, and technology and property trading centers, as well as investment and talented personnel.

Finding talented people

Zhongguancun's administration has done a number of things to attract and keep top personnel. For one, they have built a database that contains information on innovative leaders and are improving their credit management system, which is used for international exchanges.

The science park, at the core of the zone, has policies to help talented people with an overseas education get settled, access social security, and find schooling for their children.

And, the park is encouraging company partnerships with universities to create more talented personnel. It has set up post-doctoral research centers and labs and a number of nearby universities are providing courses on how to start a business.

It has also established overseas offices to promote itself and attract more people. Officials visited Europe in May to promote Zhongguancun and look for personnel. They reported that around 150 students in finance, automotive engineering, and IT expressed an interest in Zhongguancun companies.