WEDZ readies 3 billion yuan to help local industries upgrade

The Wuhan Economic & Technological Development Zone is also known as China's Auto Valley. [Photo provided to en.whkfq.gov.cn]

The Wuhan Economic & Technological Development Zone (WEDZ) has formalized eight measures, and arranged 3 billion yuan ($430.8 million) of funds to facilitate the high-quality development of local industries.

The government is encouraging major agricultural, industrial and service projects to settle in the zone, and is offering financial assistance of up to 12 million yuan for each project.

Business operators that set up their headquarters in the zone will receive a maximum bonus of 40 million yuan, and foreign-invested firms established by Fortune 500 companies will be granted subsidies capped at 25 million yuan.

Meanwhile, new projects which invest heavily in R&D will be eligible to receive up to 15 million yuan, while manufacturers, construction firms, and service providers above a designated size will be given bonuses of 3 million yuan, 3 million yuan, and 600,000 yuan, respectively, based on their output and sales volume growth.

A mother fund of 50 billion yuan will be set up by the zone to incentivize financial service providers to serve the real economy. Newly registered private equity funds in the zone will get a maximum one-time fund of 20 million yuan.

As a major driving force of Hubei's automotive industry, WEDZ has set a three-year reward of 15 million yuan for new automobile supply projects.