CHENGDU Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone is spearheading efforts to develop the capital of southwest China’s Sichuan Province into an innovation-driven city and a regional center for entrepreneurship.

Established in 1988, it has grown into a nationally-recognized high-tech development zone. In 2015, the value of its industrial output totaled 309 billion yuan (US$47.5 billion), making it the first such zone to break the 300-billion-yuan threshold in Sichuan.

Authorities are striving to further develop it into an innovation-driven zone made up of high-end industry clusters. They also hope to see it to become a center for both regional growth and international innovation.

According to the zone’s 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), authorities aim to realize annual industrial output of 1 trillion yuan by 2020. By that year, they also hope the zone will bring together 10,000 technology companies and 10,000 highly-skilled talents. Other goals over the period include the registration of more than 11,000 patents and the development of 1,000 international, national and industrial standards, according to the plan.

As part of efforts to improve the zone’s function as an innovation services platform, officials intend to establish a 5-billion-yuan collaborative innovation fund to promote cooperation between the zone and well-known universities from home and abroad.

A separate 5-billion-yuan corporate innovation fund will also be launched to encourage the world’s 500 top companies to set up research and development centers, innovation centers and engineering technology centers in the zone.

Planners in the zone also place heavy emphasis on talent, and intend to invest a further 5 billion yuan to recruit top workers and professional teams.

Covering an area of 130 square kilometers, Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone is home to numerous companies in strategic emerging industries. Last year, emerging-industry enterprises accounted for more than 80 percent of the zone’s industrial output.

For example, BOE Technology Group Co Ltd, a leading supplier of display products and solutions, started work on its Gen 6 LTPS/AMO-LED production line in the zone last year with an initial investment of 22 billion yuan. BOE announced earlier this year that it would invest another 24.5 billion yuan in the project. Once completed, the new production line will churn out high-end displays for mobile phones and devices that are expected to give a major boost to Chengdu’s electronic equipment industry.

The zone is particularly strong in the information technology industry, as many of the industry’s biggest names have a presence here, including Intel Corporation, Texas Instruments, Dell Inc and Lenovo Group Ltd. It is also home to a large number of biopharmaceutical and environmental protection companies, which at last tally accounted for 16 percent and 18 percent of the zone’s total industrial output respectively.

In the face of an increasingly challenging economic environment, the zone has begun preparing for the future with efforts to promote upgrading and industrial diversification.

To push forward upgrading in the IT industry, the zone is preparing to explore industry trends and promote niche sectors such as next-generation information terminals, high-end software and IT services, big data and Internet of Things.

The zone is also working to foster five industry clusters with output exceeding 100 billion yuan. The five industries in question are: life sciences, high-end equipment, finance, high-end software and IT services, and e-commerce.

To achieve these goals, deepened reforms are a high priority for the zone. A comprehensive administrative services center to provide one-stop and custom-made services for entrepreneurs started operation in March. Besides 45 administrative service items, the center also set up four “service windows” — law, accounting, Internet communication and software test — operated by the third-party institutions. The center is itself part of efforts to improve efficiency and quality of public services.

Planners are also committed to opening up to the outside world to boost the zone’s attractiveness to global investors.

China-Cuba (Chengdu) International Biomedical Industry Development Summit Forum was held in Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone on May 13. BioCubaFarma signed cooperation agreements with the zone’s management committee and several leading Chengdu bio-pharmaceutical companies. Meanwhile, a China-Cuba bio industry fund valued at 2 billion yuan was set up.

The zone aims to construct the Singapore-Sichuan Hi-Tech Innovation Park into a demonstration town for technology innovation. It will further elevate its cooperations in Singapore to attract a number of headquarters, R&D centers, settlement centers and trading centers.

It will set up offices worldwide to cultivate stable partnerships with the world’s leading innovation centers in Silicon Valley in the US, Tel Aviv in Israel, Sofia in France and Bangalore in India. It is also seeking to establish a cross-border technology alliance.

Last month, the management committee in the zone signed an agreement with South Korean venture capital firm Korea Investment Partners to jointly set up a 500-million-yuan venture capital fund. The fund will invest in digital entertainment, biomedicine and artificial intelligence industries.

Under the deal, the VC firm will promote the zone to South Korean companies to help attract funds, technologies, equipment and talent.

During the signing ceremony, the zone announced that a Sino-South Korean innovation park will be set up in Chengdu Jingrong International Plaza, a zone-based innovation services platform providing space and resources for startups.

Aiming to become one of China’s top “maker” spaces, the plaza has attracted 18 domestic business incubators.

“We are looking to gather more than 30 innovation incubators and over 50 innovation services institutions by 2018, as well as attract and cultivate more than 1,000 technology companies,” said Miao Xiaobo, director of the zone’s innovation center.