Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone

Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone was founded in 1988 in Sichuan province and became one of the first batch of state-level high-tech zones in 1991.

It was identified as the pilot park to develop into a world-class high-tech industrial park by the Ministry of Science and Technology in 2006 and the first national innovation demonstration zone in West China by the State Council in 2015.

Covering an area of 613 square kilometers (excluding the 44-sq-km area jointly built with Chengdu's Shuangliu district), the development zone is also the core of Sichuan's comprehensive innovation and reform and free trade experimental zones.

Its GDP reached 166.58 billion yuan ($24.14 billion) in 2017, up 10 percent year-on-year, accounting for 4.5 percent of the province's total and 12 percent of Chengdu city's.

By 2017, it was home to 156,000 market entities, including 115,000 enterprises, 33 listed companies, 115 listed on China's National Equities Exchange and Quotations, or the "new third board", and 1,058 high-tech firms.

The zone has been speeding up its construction of four industrial functional areas – the Chengdu Tianfu International Airport New Town, the Tianfu International Biological Town, and the southern and the western parts of the zone – hoping to develop itself into a demonstration area of high-quality development and an international industrial zone.