Xiamen Torch Development Zone lights path ahead for high-tech industry

Two bases of the Xiamen Torch Development Zone for High Technology Industries were ranked among the national new-type industrial demonstration bases with quality development in 2021, according to a list recently released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Of the two winners, the electronic information (photoelectric display) industry demonstration base was rated five stars and the software and information service industry demonstration base in Xiamen Software Park was given a four-star rating.

According to the ministry, the bases were evaluated in terms of their overall development and performance in fields including industrial strength, profits, green growth and integrated development.

From photoelectric displays to software, the industrial cluster has taken shape in the zone. They represent the zone's achievements and potential in digital economic development, local officials said.

Focusing on the digital economy, the zone has integrated advanced manufacturing and software information services in its development, becoming a force of digital economic growth in Xiamen, Fujian province.

It was granted a demonstration zone for entrepreneurship and innovation by the State Council. For six years, it has ranked the highest in overall development among its Fujian peers. Xiamen Software Park, administrated by the zone, was rated as a provincial-level demonstration park of the digital economy.

So far, the zone has built a complete digital economic industrial chain covering basic research to application and hardware to software.

Digital empowerment

Shitoucheng, a high-tech company engaged in the stone business, is one of the shining examples that practices digital development in the zone.

Located in the third phase of Xiamen Software Park, Shitoucheng trades stone through a digital system, which is the first of its kind in the industry.

The system can conduct real-time monitoring throughout the whole stone trade. It helps manage the life cycle of each piece of stone from quarrying, selling and being put to use.

"The traditional stone industry is less organized and lacks core enterprises, which results in unfair competition and disordered management," said Wang Haiming, founder of Shitoucheng.

Due to such issues, Shitoucheng has found a way to promote industrial transformation and upgrading based on digital technology, Wang said.

After years of development, Shitoucheng has developed from a stone trading platform to a business with a wholly digital industrial chain. The company has developed its enterprise resource planning system with a focus on promoting the intelligent construction of stone-processing plants. Moreover, it has expanded to logistics, building a platform for mobilizing logistical resources such as cargo drivers.

According to the company, it serves more than 7,000 projects and has more than 30,000 suppliers and 43,804 drivers.

"The trade of one stone involves more than 700 procedures and requires the labor of more than 20 people. But digitalization helps increase trading efficiency, reduces labor costs and assists the industry's highly efficient and green development," Wang said.

The digitalization of industries also creates more opportunities in Xiamen, he added.

In 2020, Xiamen began its construction of the BRICS Partnership New Industrial Revolution Innovation Center. Official data showed that the coastal city contributes 30 percent to the import and export volume of stone between China and BRICS countries－Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

As one of the first batch of projects to sign agreements with the center, Shitoucheng has more than 1,000 suppliers trading stone with BRICS countries. The company said it is promoting the construction of a digital industrial park featuring BRICS stone businesses.

The park will use research institutes on intelligent development to help build a "lighthouse factory" in the stone industry, which will adopt digital methods from production and trade to logistics, according to the company.

Major forces

Apart from manufacturing, the zone is home to a group of software businesses including Meiya Pico in information security, Meitu in facial recognition and Xiamen Weite Technology, whose information technology innovation application platform was listed among the IT innovation application solutions in 2021 by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

"In the field of the digital economy, the zone has utilized technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data and blockchain on the basis of software businesses and has achieved initial success in sectors including IT innovation application, the metaverse and the smart audiovisual industry," said an official from the administrative committee of the zone.

At present, a slew of businesses in the zone have seen rapid development and become major forces in Xiamen's digital economic growth.

For example, YLZ Information Technology in healthcare has ranked first in the circulation of social security cards with national new standards; video conference system provider Yealink is No 1 in the global video phone market; Migu has become one of the largest publishers of mobile phone animations in China; and Reconova has ranked among the country's top 100 AI businesses, with its facial recognition equipment deployed in nearly one-third of China's airports, according to the zone.

"Concentration, dedicated research and development, and specialization are key to the success of a business," said Yu Jinxi, deputy general manager of Reconova.

Data, algorithms and computing power are the three core elements in the digital economy era, Yu said.

This year, Reconova won the fifth place in the global competition Face Recognition Vendor Test. Moreover, its intelligent facial-recognition door locks were certified by the Third Research Institute of the Ministry of Public Security, which is the first of its kind in the industry.

Over the past three years, the company has helped establish national standards for AI.

Accelerating innovation

To foster innovative businesses, Xiamen has issued guidelines to accelerate the development of software and the emerging digital industry. The zone has also rolled out a series of preferential policies in fields such as technology, talent, finance and intellectual property, as part of its efforts to assist industrial innovation and upgrading.

The zone has formed a complete industrial cultivation system including spaces for innovators, incubators and industrial bases. It has created five national-level incubators measuring more than 1 million square meters and has built more than 100 spaces for innovators.

In addition, the zone has set up various industrial alliances and associations to help overcome technical difficulties and connect upstream and downstream sectors of the industrial chain.

The zone has provided businesses with technology support in their digital transformation, especially regarding the internet of things and AI, said Gao Yucong, general manager of the IT center at San'an Optoelectronics.

Headquartered in Xiamen, San'an has highlighted digitalization in its transformation from the photoelectric field and integrated circuits to the auto sector.

"In recent years, Xiamen and the zone have encouraged local supporting businesses, which has helped San'an find cooperation with more local service providers and receive more timely technical support and maintenance," Gao said.

Seizing the opportunities of the digital economy, the zone will build incubation bases for the metaverse industry and develop a cultural creation industry centering on the metaverse, an official of the zone said.

Meanwhile, the zone will develop the industrial software and industrial internet industry, make efforts to integrate the electronic information industry, and promote the construction of an export base of digital services, the official said.

The zone will develop digital cultural creation and IT services into strong industries and support businesses expanding into overseas markets involved in the Belt and Road Initiative and the BRICS partnership, the official added.

Guo Wei, Liu Qing and Li Shun contributed to this story.