The Ministry of Science and Technology recently released a list of 25 newly-approved national innovative cities. Xiangtan was Hunan’s only shortlisted city for the title, according to the Xiangtan Bureau of Science and Technology on January 9. It is a new national calling card for Xiangtan, after the approval of the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan National Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone.
Xiangtan has made constant efforts to optimize the environment for innovative development, and push forward the application of sci-tech achievements. It is in the front rank in several main indicators of sci-tech innovation, including the proportion of hi-tech industry’s added value in regional GDP, number of hi-tech enterprises, transaction volume of technical contracts, and the percentage of research and experiment expending in GDP. A number of innovative enterprises with independent intellectual property are famed, such as the Hunan Valin Wire & Cable Co., Ltd., the Hunan SUND Technological Corporation, and the Hongda Vacuum Equipment Co., Ltd. Superiority are shown in the fields of deep-sea drilling, carbon-based nanometer devices, applied mathematics, and electromagnetic and electric drives. Since 2018, Xiangtan had increased its percentage of R&D expending in GDP, with the growth rate of 0.3 percentage points higher than the provincial average and topping in the province. In 2021, the number of hi-tech enterprises in Xiangtan had exceeded 640, with their added value taking up more than 36% of GDP.
Xiangtan government rolled out a three-year plan for making improvements in key aspects of national innovative cities between 2021 and 2023. The plan focuses on boosting high-quality development of advanced manufacturing, and improving the capacity of gathering innovation resources, industrial competitiveness, and comprehensive strength of the city. It will strive to build Xiangtan into a national innovative city with a complete structural and institutional system, a reasonable industrial structure, a balanced economic and social development, a good atmosphere for innovation and entrepreneurship, and distinctive regional characteristics.
The plan emphasized six major aspects, including constructing a new pattern of regional innovation, fostering innovative cultural of the city, and leveraging the supporting role of science and technology. It proposed rises in the percentage of the R&D expending in GDP, and the proportion of public sci-tech expenditure in the total public fiscal expenditures.
This article is from Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.
Translator: Pang Yuehui
Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn
