West China’s Xixian New Area pioneers in navigating new sci-tech landscape

XI’AN, China, Mar. 27, 2024 /Xinhua-AsiaNet/–

Shaanxi, a province located in west China, is famous for its rich historical sites and profound cultural heritage. However, Xixian New Area, which connects the main urban areas of the cities of Xi’an and Xianyang, is refreshing the stereotype of this inland province: Shaanxi is becoming a trendsetter in China in terms of empowering regional high-quality development with sci-tech innovation.

In 2021, Shaanxi launched the Qinchuangyuan Platform, an innovation-driven base committed to creating a comprehensive and facilitating incubator, an accelerator for the utilization of sci-tech research achievements and a promoter for the integration of the talent chain and the industrial chain to boost regional high-quality development, according to Xixian New Area Administrative Committee.  

As the first national-level new area in China highlighting innovative urban development, Xixian New Area has been established as the general carrier of the Qinchuangyuan Platform, which continuously stimulates the vitality of regional economic development by deepening reform in key areas and boosting the efficiency of the innovation-driven platform.

In 2022, Shaanxi piloted three reforms, allowing and supporting sci-tech researchers in provincial-level comprehensive and science and engineering universities to be able to turn their research achievements into market projects, further stimulating the innovation drive and entrepreneurship vitality of sci-tech professionals.

This policy set has been widely used, and has gradually formed a whole chain service to promote the utilization of sci-tech research achievements, generating remarkable outcomes across the province.

After the implementation of the policy, the province’s volume of contracted technology transactions has increased by more than 30 percent for three consecutive years.

Last year saw the province’s contracted technology transactions reach a record high of 412.076 billion yuan, and a total of 35,124 local technology utilization contracts, which accounted for 50.38 percent of the total contracts. The local utilization of contracted technology transactions stood at 160.117 billion yuan, accounting for 38.86 percent of the total turnover.

With the help of the Qinchuangyuan Platform, high-tech and advanced manufacturing industries such as hydrogen energy, photovoltaics, intelligent networked vehicles, special vehicles, biomedicine, CNC machine tools and aerospace have developed rapidly in Xixian New Area.

By the end of 2023, the number of national high-tech enterprises and the number of small and medium-sized sci-tech firms in the area increased by 5.8 times and 5.5 times respectively compared with 2021.

In Xixian, some tech start-ups are thriving. In just a few years, the market valuations of Sensecraft Technology and Hydrotransformer have increased by 30 times and 120 times respectively. Firms like XiopmSpace have made remarkable breakthroughs in core technologies of the industry.

Nowadays, Xixian New Area has become the development engine of Shaanxi and even northwest China. Last year, the area’s GDP increased by 7.9 percent year on year, 2.3 times that of the same period in 2017, while its per capita regional GDP doubled.

While seeking its own fast development, Xixian New Area also promotes regional coordinated development by optimizing the industrial development layout and supporting other cities in Shaanxi.

Xixian New Area has initiated the establishment of the Qinchuangyuan Innovation Promotion Center Alliance with a total of 13 member centers in cities and industries across Shaanxi, and issued ten initiatives to promote the coordination among different cities.

Shaanxi’s government work report for 2024 has proposed to further strengthen the leading role of innovation by implementing eight major actions of sci-tech innovation.

The province seeks to make good use of the three pools of science and technology, talents and capital to build about 20 provincial-level Qinchuangyuan future industrial innovation clusters, and strive to increase the added value of strategic emerging industries by 8 percent by creating a number of new growth engines.

As the only national new area in Shaanxi, Xixian New Area has formulated a detailed timetable and agenda for high-quality development this year. The area vows to step up efforts in modernizing its industrial system and deepening reform and innovation to achieve fresh progress and momentum on all fronts.

Yang Renhua, Party secretary of the Administrative Committee of Xixian New Area, has called for enhanced efforts in developing the area as the general carrier of the Qinchuangyuan Platform.

The three reforms will be further pushed forward, and new development tracks and space will be explored by unleashing the power of new quality productive forces in a move to provide more Xixian experience and samples for the realization of Chinese modernization, Yang added.