The Chengdu high-tech developmental zone, established in 1988, is one of China’s first national high-tech developmental zones approved by the State Council in 1991 with an ISO14000 national pilot. The Ministry of Science and Technology has approved it as one of China’s first six pilot areas to construct “first-class developmental zones in the world.”

The Chengdu high-tech developmental zone, planned to cover 130 square kilometers of land, is a key area for high-tech industries in the Sichuan province and Chengdu city. As a result of rapid development over the past 20 years, it has established three major industries of electronic information, bio-medicine and precision machinery manufacturing. It also hosts six industrial groups of integrated circuits, software and service outsourcing, bio-medicine, precision machinery, communication and optical display.

The developmental zone has realized an over 25 percent annual growth rate in all economic indexes. In the comprehensive ranking of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Chengdu high-tech developmental zone ranks as the fourth largest among China’s 56 national high-tech industrial zones, and the first in the central and western region.

By the end of 2009, the Chengdu high-tech developmental zone held 449 high-tech companies, 45.6 percent of the total in the Suchuan province and 60.5 percent of Chengdu city. High-tech industrial added values amounted to 33 percent of the Sichuan province and 63 percent of Chengdu city. It has successively attracted a list of globally advanced high-tech companies, including Intel, IBM, Nokia, Symantec, Siemens, Maersk and Molex, to invest projects. International companies have set up branches in the developmental zone, include 48 of the global top 500 companies, 11 of the global top 20 software companies, and 20 of the global top 100 service outsourcing companies.

In the first half of 2010, the Chengdu high-tech developmental zone achieved 22.12 billion yuan ($3.5 billion) in industrial added values, raising 29.3 percent. The fixed assets investment amounted to 17.45 billion yuan, up 15.3 percent. The general financial revenues stood at 8.63 billion yuan, up 69.4 percent. The local fiscal general budget revenues were 2.312 billion yuan, up 30.1 percent. The foreign trade was 1.75 billion U.S. dollars, up 3.4 percent. The contracted foreign investment was 240 million U.S. dollars, up 356.4 percent. The actual foreign investment was 479 million U.S. dollars, up 85.9 percent.