Hangzhou Economic and Technological Development Area ranks top on national list

The Hangzhou Economic and Technological Development Area (HEDA), Xiasha district, Zhejiang province ranks 9th among the 219 State-level economic and technological zones, according to a report recently released by the Ministry of Commerce.

As the only development area in Zhejiang province that made it to the top ten, the 105-square-kilometer HEDA stood out for its combined efforts in per capita GDP, enterprise performances, and research and development investment over the years.

Taking talent and technology development as a top priority, HEDA established the city's first human resources and technology bureau and issued a string of preferential policies for talents.

As of 2018, HEDA has introduced a total of 270 State high-tech enterprises with a 13.4 percent growth in the added value of the industry. The number of research and development centers in the region exceeds 200.

In addition, a total of 15 innovative research institutions from world leading universities including Imperial College London, the California Institute of Technology, Peking University, and the University of Auckland have settled in the development area.

With a focus on attracting more investment in the biopharmaceutical industry, Hangzhou Biopharma Town, an industrial cluster for biopharmaceutical development, now houses over 100,000 professional talents of that kind and introduced 52 high-quality projects in the related industry with a total investment of 30 billion yuan ($4.38 billion) in 2018.

More than 480 world renowned companies and research institutes in the biopharmaceutical industry are now stationed in HEDA, including one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, Pfizer Pharmaceutical Ltd, and an innovative research institute of China Pharmaceutical University.