China has built up thousands of new and high-tech development
zones. In the 53 state-level new and high-tech development zones, a
great many sci-tech research results have been put into use in
production. By 2004, there were over 30,000 high-tech enterprises
in these zones, 20 of which had annual production values over 10
billion yuan, more than 200 over five billion yuan, and 3,000 over
100 million yuan. In these zones, the average growth in major
economic indicators has been maintained at 60 percent per annum for
12 years running, and they have become important engines of
national economic growth.
Private science and technology enterprises have also made great
headway, some becoming group corporations with annual output values
of anything from several hundred million up to several billion
yuan. Their high-tech products now account for over half of the
domestic market for such products.
Establishing export bases for new and high-tech products in
selected high-tech industrial development zones is an important
part of the government's plan for developing trade through science
and technology. The first designated export bases, selected because
of their rapid overall development, rich talent, excellent
equipment, and rapidly growing exports of high-tech products,
include the Beijing Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park and
high-tech industrial development zones in Tianjin, Shanghai,
Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Shandong, Hubei, Guangdong, Shaanxi,
Dalian, Xiamen, Qingdao and Shenzhen. The Pearl River Delta,
Yangtze River Delta and the Beijing-Tianjin region have the
greatest concentration of such export bases, consequently export
volumes of new and high-tech products from these areas account for
over 80 percent of the national total.