Wuhan metropolitan area backbone for Hubei's economy

The Huanggang Offshore Sci-tech Innovation Center in OVC. [Photo/WeChat account of Optics Valley of China]

In the first half of the year, Central China's Hubei province achieved 2.63 trillion yuan ($368.2 billion) in GDP, with the nine cities in the Wuhan metropolitan area accounting for 60.64 percent of the total.

Li Chunyang, chairman of the Wuhan Metropolitan Area Research Institute in Hubei Province, analyzed that the fixed asset investment growth rate of the nine cities of the Wuhan metropolitan area is generally faster than that of the whole province. He expressed that it is particularly noticeable in the areas such as industrial investment, technological transformation investment, and high-tech investment.

Huangshi (Wuhan) Offshore Sci-tech Innovation Park is the first sci-tech enclave in Hubei, established in the East Lake High-tech Development Zone (also known as Optics Valley of China, or OVC) in June 2021. Over the past two years, there have been over 70 events, including entrepreneurship competitions, talent exchanges, and campus recruitment. Additionally, 93 companies have secured contracts to settle in.

Since the beginning of this year, several cities in Hubei have also established such sci-tech enclaves in OVC, including Huanggang, Jingzhou, Ezhou, and Xianning.

Building offshore sci-tech innovation parks and innovation centers in central cities is a valuable way for smaller cities to overcome technological deficiencies and attract and retain skilled talents.

The Optics Valley of China, rich in innovation and entrepreneurship resources, is the preferred location for cities in the province to establish their sci-tech enclaves.

A staff member from the valley's sci-tech innovation bureau stated that OVC welcomes and supports other cities in the province to come to Wuhan to establish offshore science and technology innovation parks and innovation centers. The Optics Valley management department will provide equal services to the settled companies and jointly build the Optics Valley Sci-tech Innovation Corridor.