Innovation valley gets policy support from central bank

The People’s Bank of China released 15 new policies during the second China International Import Expo on Friday to further boost the development of the G60 Science and Technology Innovation Valley of Yangtze River Delta.

The project is an alliance of nine major cities in the Yangtze River Delta initialed by Shanghai's Songjiang District to promote infrastructure construction and create a better business environment.

The policies provide financial facilities to artificial intelligence, integrated circuit, biological medicine, high-end equipment, new energy and new material industries.

They will also help small and micro enterprises with financial difficulties.

Along with the new policies, a financial service center was also founded at the expo as the innovation valley signed agreements with 12 major banks and seven investment corporations.

Over the past year, the nine cities in the innovation valley attracted US$35.6 billion in foreign investment. Total export-import volume reached US$573.1 billion.

According to a Songjiang official, a trade delegation from the nine cities has so far signed deals with exhibitors worth a total of over 44.9 billion yuan (US$6.43 billion).