Hebei hub to nurture tech innovations

Zhou Xiang and his employees are looking forward to moving into their new offices in an innovation hub unveiled recently for nurturing innovations and facilitating breakthroughs by enterprises in technological fields in Xiong'an New Area, Hebei province.

The hub - Xiong'an New Area Zhongguancun Science Park -made its debut on Wednesday in Huawangcheng, a complex of commercial buildings in Rongdong area, with an unveiling ceremony.

Zhou is the general manager of Xiong'an Oriental Yuhong Construction Technology Co, a subsidiary of Beijing-based Oriental Yuhong, a company dealing with waterproofing and other construction materials.

"The park has made us more confident about our development of Xiong'an, because it can provide a convenient communication platform for innovative companies," Zhou said.

His company established its presence in Xiong'an in 2017, not long after the plan to set up the new area was announced in April of that year.

Located about 100 kilometers southwest of Beijing, Xiong'an serves as a flagship project to advance the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and relieve Beijing of functions not essential to its role as the national capital.

The central authorities have stressed that high-standard scientific and technological innovation should be the foundation of the high-quality development of the new area.

"The park will gather high-level innovation elements and resources and help establish complementary regional chains in innovation, industry and supply," said Dong Zhaowei,vice-governor of Hebei during the launch of the Xiong'an New Area Zhongguancun Science Park.

The first stage of the park is spread over more than 20,000 square meters and it will house innovative firms from various fields, including aerospace information technology and artificial intelligence, according to the Xiong'an New Area management authorities. Another 14,000 square meters of space has been reserved for further use.

"It should make good use of high-quality enterprises, top-notch universities and high-end talent as innovation resources to strengthen the industry-university-research cooperation and thus continuously improve the level of collaborative innovation and industrial cooperation in the region," Dong said.

In particular, it should optimize the mechanism for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements to guide the implementation of the achievements from Beijing and Tianjin to Hebei,he added.

The park was jointly established by the Zhongguancun Development Group, China Xiong'an Group and Xiong'an Reform and Development Bureau.

Zhongguancun, a flag bearer of China's innovation, is the country's first national high-tech industrial development zone in Beijing.

"I hope that Beijing and Hebei can cooperate closely and efficiently to jointly plan the development of the park with a high starting point and a top-level design," said Yu Yingjie, vice-mayor of Beijing during the ceremony.

Yu added that Beijing and Hebei should work together to promote the construction of an innovative ecosystem and ensure the high-quality implementation of demonstration projects.

A total of 20 enterprises and 11 service-oriented firms have signed agreements for registration at the park. The 11 service-oriented firms will provide comprehensive services for settled companies in the park in multiple areas, including finance,designing, intellectual property and capital management.

This is one of the attractive features for Zhou, the general manager of Xiong'an Oriental Yuhong Construction Technology. "As far as I know, the park will further supply some supporting policies for companies' research and development."

According to Zhou, his company has majorly participated in the construction of Xiong'an with numerous high-quality products applied in multiple major projects, such as the area's new high-speed railway station, a hospital and hotels.

"As an innovation-featured city,Xiong'an has provided great development opportunities for us. If the new hub will give us more preferential policies, that will be greater for our future research and development," Zhou said.