Thirty years ago this week, then-Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping pushed for the development of science and technology. Since then, China’s science and technology industry has found itself on a brand-new path.

Two decades ago, the first national, high-tech district, Beijing Zhongguancun Science Park, was established.

It was a response to the central government’s strategy to develop its high-tech industry. Since then, the park has developed into an advanced industrial area, leading the software, integrated circuit and computer industries in China. Over the past twenty years, Zhongguancun Science Park has maintained a more than 25% annual growth rate. And it accounts for 18% of Beijing’s GDP.

So far, China has set up 54 high-tech districts, concentrating the country’s high-tech talent. These districts have become efficient technology transfer areas and the most prolific contributors to Chinese science and technology.

Jing Gang, Working Committee Secretary of Chengdu High-Tech Industrial Development Zone said ‘We have stressed providing standardized, efficient and high-quality services to companies. We have also been sticking to the concept that industry development, especially that of the high-tech industry, is our lifeline. All our work is subject to the industry’s development.’

After decades of development, the national high-tech districts have formed into a newly-emerged industrial core with their own characteristics. They play a critical role in the regional economy and in the transformation of cities’ economic structure and development.
Source: CCTV International

Originally, as reported by Xinhua, the plan was that Nokia’s China new headquarters in Beijing would be completed and in use at the end of last year. Missed by a month or so but now it is open and the six-story building has a total floor area even larger that of its world headquarters in Finland.

Shen Jian, communications manager of Nokia China, said the new headquarters will house 2,000 research and development (R&D) and management staff.

The headquarters, R&D center inside and manufacturing base located in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area in Yizhuang, southeastern Beijing, will form the Nokia China Campus.

The headquarters building started construction in May 2006 with an investment of RMB450 million ($60 million).

The Nokia China Campus and the Xingwang Industrial Park, which is home to almost 20 other electronic companies led by Nokia, will form the most integrated mobile phone production chain in the world.

China has become the largest market of Nokia, the world’s largest mobile phone maker, whose sales and export volume in China exceeded $13 billion in 2006.
Source: China View

China has named 30 new state-level high-tech industrial bases which brings it to a total of 65.

The announcement was made by Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan (seen in our illustration) in Beijing when he awarded the State-level High-tech Industrial Bases to 30 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xi’an and Tianjin.

The 30 bases include six that are multi-purpose and 24 that specialize separately in civil aviation, new energy resources, microelectronics, information and biology.

It is generally accepted that the high-tech bases have played an important role in transforming the economic growth of China and upgrading the industrial structure. Moving, as it were, from a total dependence on agriculture and fossil fuel burning heavy industry to relatively clean and light power usage high tech.

Last year, the output of the high-tech sector was RMB1.91 trillion yuan ($269 billion), 7.8% of China’s gross domestic product.

Meanwhile, high-tech exports came to $347.8 billion, nearly 30% of the nation’s total exports.

The industrial output and exports had risen at average annual rates of 21.5% and 37.7%, for the seven years leading up to 2007.
Source: Window of China

Zhongguancun is an early industrial zone which is in the northwest part of Beijing and could be thought of, in a sense, as China’s ‘Silicon Valley.’

This is not a zone that has been designed from scratch. It has evolved rather than followed a strict plan.

Since the mid-1980’s it has been transformed from a quiet suburb designated for scientific research and higher education a major hub of high-tech business and research and development (R & D) labs. The following snapshots show the region’s startling transformation in a matter of years.

If you look at early pictures of the place in, say, the early 1980 you see it is a peaceful backwater with

each institute having a residential compound.

By 2005, the area hosted over 17,000 certified new technology enterprises; nearly 60% were in information communication technology or related sectors which is why you can think of it as China’s Silicon Valley. Most of the companies were spin-offs from universities and the nearby Academy of Sciences.

Compared to regions in other developing countries it has unique features. All Chinese technological commercial firms had to be created — from scratch — in the post-reform era that began in the 1980’s.

Further, ZGC does not feature multinational corporations (MNCs) as dominant players though MNCs have been welcomed as an integral part of the mix.

Technological progress in ZGC has been driven primarily by domestic demand rather than export needs.

Over 85% of ZGC’s revenue has come from domestic sales of products and services.

Many of China’s well-known ICT companies are found in ZGC: Lenovo, the world third largest personal computer manufacturer; Baidu, China’s leading Internet search engine company; UFIDA, China’s largest privately owned software company; Founder, China’s largest digital media company; Datang, one of China’s largest telecommunication solution companies; Aigo, China’s leading portable storage and digital entertainment product maker, and Sina.com and Sohu.com, two of China’s most popular Internet portals.

The advance of firms in ZGC is driven by the ability to create and implementadvanced technologies for the Chinese market.

This article is a very condensed part of a a chapter in The Inside Story of China’s High-Tech Industry: Making Silicon Valley in Beijing by Yu Zhou who is associate professor of Earth Science and Geography, Vassar College. Click on Source to read the rest of the chapter.
Source: Japan Focus