Business environment in Zhejiang

7. Environment

East China's Zhejiang province proposes that in three to five years, the information economy will take a prominent position in Zhejiang's economy and innovation will receive a boost. Over the same period, centers for international e-commerce, the internet of things, cloud computing and big data will be built to ensure that Zhejiang's Internet Plus and new smart city initiatives will lead the country. It will place emphasis not only on the manufacturing sector, but also on the software and service industries. The province has set a goal that by 2019, the added value of the core industries of the information economy could reach 550 billion yuan ($84.4 billion). Though Zhejiang is home to a number of high-tech companies, like the e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and Hikvision, a leading supplier of surveillance and monitoring devices, shortages in core technologies have hindered the development of the information economy. Zhejiang province provides a layout of cutting-edge technologies in artificial intelligence, virtual reality and big data analysis, and it focuses on innovation in research and development. The increasing use of high-tech equipment in factories is a typical example of the combination of informationization and industrialization in Zhejiang. This combination will grow deeper and stronger to further boost intelligent manufacturing and modern agriculture. To better serve the rapid development of the information economy, the construction of infrastructure such as cloud platforms will be promoted as a comprehensive supporting system. In the future, efficient networks, internet of things technologies and core enterprises in cloud computing will together strengthen social applications. Also, building 10 characteristic towns, large-scale developments designed to evolve into hubs for companies operating in the information economy are earmarked as projects to be completed in the future.

Zhejiang set up the country's first provincial-level platform for unified rail transit management on July 3, 2017, to boost the overall efficiency of rail transportation. Zhejiang plans to spend over 500 billion yuan ($73.5 billion) on an integrated rail network as part of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), with an estimated rail network of 4,000 km.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, Zhejiang will improve its transport infrastructure in order to create a safe, convenient, green and efficient comprehensive transport network by 2020.

8. Human Culture

One outstanding characteristic of Zhejiang's culture is the strong beat of its economic pulse. In line with "prosperity in Qiantang since ancient times" and represented by the Yongjia academic school in Wenzhou, the mindset of "equal focus on morality and profits, and on industry and commerce as foundations" began to take root in the feudal society, becoming a peculiar feature of Chinese culture and deeply affecting Zhejiang people's ideological concepts and behavioral patterns. Another characteristic of Zhejiang culture lies in the traditional creativity that draws on strengths of both the inland culture and ocean culture. It also mingles the essence of Wuyue culture and culture in the central plains of China, reflecting the exchanges between Chinese culture and western culture and forming a peculiar division in the Confucian culture.

Most distinctive in "Zhejiang spirit" is the enterprising spirit, featuring "Constant striving, perseverance, innovation and pragmatism", which a vivid portrait of Zhejiang people. They believed in "no business too small" in the era of planned economy. During that era, large groups of Zhejiang people left Zhejiang for different places over the country, where they were engaged in the jobs for which the locals would show contempt. Now, a number of them have worked their way to entrepreneurs of non-governmental enterprises whose market values exceed a hundred million yuan. Back at that time, they were collecting waste for recycling, fluffing cotton with a bow, repairing shoes and forging irons, etc. However, they had never regarded such laboring as a shame. Instead, they managed to grasp every opportunity and accumulated precious experience for their later undertakings. Nowadays, many entrepreneurs with great achievements in Zhejiang are still practicing the virtues of diligence and thrift formed when they started their businesses. This is an important reason why the economy in Zhejiang enjoys such sustainable, quick and benign development.

Among China's cultural celebrities, there are over one thousand persons of Zhejiang origin, which accounts for 1/6 of the nation's total. Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China, those with Zhejiang origin have accounted for nearly 1/5 of the academicians in the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Engineering. Since the implementation of the reform and open-door policy, Zhejiang people have been well known pathbreakers to the four corners of the earth. People in different sectors from Zhejiang can be found all over China and the world.