West China’s Xixian New Area playing window of opportunity to innovation-driven development

In 2022, the number of new technology-based enterprises in Xixian New Area was 1.8 times that of last year, of which the number of new enterprises developed based on sci-tech achievements was 2.5 times that of 2021. The new area identified 490 high-tech enterprises, 2.2 times that of the previous year, according to Xixian New Area Administrative Committee.

Meanwhile, 18 Fortune 500 companies and 24 top-performing Chinese firms settled in the new area, which saw its industrial investment, gross industrial output of large enterprises and the output of high-tech industries grew by 81.6 percent, 20.4 percent and 23.1 percent respectively.

Behind these impressive development figures are the efforts made by Xixian New Area to incubate, attract and retain enterprises.

In order to give full play to the industrial cluster effect, Xixian New Area has set up an industrial belt and ten industrial parks, established 12 key industrial chains such as photovoltaic, hydrogen energy and computer numerical control machine tools, and initially formed modern industrial clusters involving solar energy, hydrogen energy, artificial intelligence and construction machinery.

In January this year, Chinese solar energy giant LONGi Green Energy Technology Co., Ltd. settled a project with an annual output of 100GW monocrystalline silicon wafers and 50GW monocrystalline batteries in Qinchuangyuan. The 45.2-billion-yuan industrial project is another move following LONGi’s investment of 32.8 billion yuan in Xixian New Area, where the photovoltaic industry base with the largest production capacity in the world will be built.

To provide strong human resources support for enterprise development, Xixian New Area established a talent market and started the construction of Xi’an International Talent Port in an all-round way. At present, 253 high-level professionals have been introduced and 22,147 innovative and entrepreneurial professionals are based in the incubator.

In addition, Xixian New Area has also made bold explorations in financial empowerment for technological innovation. In February this year, Qinchuangyuan Capital Market opened, creating a one-stop full-cycle financial service platform featuring both online and offline access for enterprises.

The new area is building on the strong development momentum to leverage Qinchuangyuan’s roles to promote Shaanxi’s high-quality growth. On March 14, the local government unveiled a three-year action plan to beef up Qinchuanyuan’s innovation-empowerment functions, aiming to turn the incubator into a major platform for the province’s deep integration of innovation and industrial chains, a breeding hub for sci-tech firms and a top destination for talent inflow.

In an enterprise located in Xixian New Area, west China’s Shaanxi Province, several automatic laser resistance trimmers are producing thin film platinum resistance cores at full speed.

These tiny parts, seemingly inconspicuous, have addressed one major technical bottleneck facing the Chinese sensor sector, and reduced the original category’s production cost by 20 percent.

This is China’s first automatic production line covering temperature sensitive chips of normal temperature, ultra-low temperature and ultra-high temperature thin films. It belongs to start-up Xi’an Sensecraft Technology Co., Ltd., and is a landmark achievement of Shaanxi in promoting the deep integration of innovation chain and industrial chain.

In March 2022, Sensecraft settled in Qinchuangyuan, which is mainly located in Xixian New Area. Committed to creating an innovative highland in west China, Qinchuangyuan is the general platform facilitating innovation-driven development in the western province.

With the help of the incubator, the enterprise started office and production site decoration and moved in equipment in July, and in November, the first automatic production line kicked off production, with the first batch of thin film platinum resistance sensors delivered one month later, making an impressive smooth and fast realization of turning technological resources into concrete products.

“Since our settlement here, the Qinchuangyuan incubator has provided us with a string of preferential policy support such as free rent for plants and free training in financial management, project declaration, construction and application of intellectual property rights. These supportive policies have put us on a fast track of development,” said Luo Yan, general manager with Sensecraft and associate professor with the School of Mechanical Engineering of Northwestern Polytechnical University.

The galloping development of Sensecraft is a microcosm of the accelerated gathering of sci-tech innovation resources, the multiplication of sci-tech projects and enterprises, and the breakthrough in cooperation between cities in Xixian New Area in recent years.

Looking forward, Xixian New Area will establish a channel facilitating the flow of sci-tech resources within and outside the province, and lay out investment promotion and innovation service centers in areas rich in innovation resources such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta, so as to attract new R&D institutions, innovative incubators and sci-tech service institutions in advanced areas to settle in Xixian, according to Yang Renhua, top official in the new area.

“We will also build an international innovation network and an information service platform for international cooperation, attract the developers of world-class foreign science parks to build international science parks in Xixian New Area, and help enterprises go global and introduce new investment,” Yang added.

Source: Xixian New Area Administrative Committee