Financing and support among key roles spearheaded by area this year

In the current major asset forms of technology-based enterprises, the proportion of intangible intellectual property such as patents and trademarks is increasing. The Xi'an Hi-Tech Industries Development Zone in Shaanxi province has played a pioneering role in IP-collateralized peer-to-peer or P2P financing.

The zone has established an innovation alliance under the Belt and Road Initiative to solve the funding bottleneck restricting the development of technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises.

By formulating policies to promote IP-collateralized financing, the zone has helped enterprises solve corporate problems. The assistance is effective in boosting the transformation of scientific and technological achievements.

In 2019, more than 300 patent-collateralized contracts were registered in the high-tech zone, and patent-collateralized loans totaled more than 1.8 billion yuan ($274 million).

The zone has established a leading national credit and financial service platform in data sharing, credit inquiry and credit applications by cooperating with Xi'an Bank to explore the pilot project of "investment and loan linkage".

The zone is encouraging internet enterprises to develop small and micro financing services based on their own characteristics.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak began earlier this year, the Xi'an high-tech zone has taken multiple measures to prevent and control the spread of the virus.

The zone issued a series of policies to help companies overcome difficulties, including supporting of small and medium-sized enterprises and spearheading biomedicine production.

The high-tech zone has supported 80 hard technology companies this year to carry out technological research. The total value of its support amounts to 20 million yuan.

In March, the high-tech zone brought in experts to provide guidance on IP protection for research projects. The experts conducted online seminars and trainings to support innovation.

Guo Xiaohui, deputy director of the zone's management committee, said the high-tech zone insists on making innovation its driving force to lead high-quality economic development. The zone greatly values its ability to contribute to new scientific and technological achievements.

"The zone has become an important part of Xi'an's innovative development," Guo said.

"It has created a new bright spot for the city's economic development and had a great effect."

The zone has advanced the construction of the IP business environment by gathering various service resources and supporting regional innovation-driven development.

It will continue to implement a national innovation-driven development plan and optimize the business environment.

It will mobilize and leverage the resources of IP service enterprises' innovation and development in a wider range of fields.

The high-tech zone will build itself into a national IP service cluster and a demonstration zone, coordinate efforts from the supply and demand sides and promote the in-depth docking of high-quality resources and the needs of innovative entities. The zone will also strengthen its cooperation with national IP service agencies involved in the Belt and Road Initiative and attract foreign IP service agencies to the region.