China to expand sci-tech innovation hubs into regional clusters for global influence: minister

BEIJING -- China plans to expand its innovation hubs from individual cities into broader regional clusters, with the aim of establishing globally influential science and technology innovation centers within the next 10 years, according to the country's top science official.

This move, proposed at the tone-setting Central Economic Work Conference last December, will expand Beijing's international tech innovation center to include the entire Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Meanwhile, Shanghai's center will now cover the whole Yangtze River Delta, bringing in major economic hubs like Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and the tech-focused province of Anhui.

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) is the third hub in the plan.

This shift marks a new phase where innovation centers "transition from single-city development to integrated regional coordination," Minister of Science and Technology Yin Hejun told Xinhua on Wednesday.

"The aim is to further enhance functions in innovations, high-end industry leadership, and the gathering of top-tier talent, ensuring the establishment of globally influential science and technology innovation centers by 2035," Yin said.

Over the past few years, the innovation hubs in Beijing, Shanghai and the GBA have yielded a number of pioneering achievements and fostered the formation of several advanced manufacturing clusters.

In 2024, the R&D intensity of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong province reached 6.58 percent, 4.35 percent, and 3.6 percent, respectively -- ranking them as the top three regions in the country.

Their innovation strength and vitality have also gained global recognition. The Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou innovation cluster in the GBA has topped the World Intellectual Property Organization's 2025 Global Innovation Index, overtaking Japan's Tokyo-Yokohama cluster to claim the No. 1 spot for the first time.

Many enterprises have expanded their presence in these leading innovation hubs to capitalize on the cluster effect and drive their own development. JoyGovAI, a Chengdu-based information technology service provider, is among the companies that have established branches in Beijing and Shanghai, and is also in the process of setting up an office in Shenzhen.

"The concentration of resources within these innovation clusters can help companies coordinate and share resources, and facilitate interaction across industrial achievements. This will reduce innovation costs and shorten the R&D cycle," said the company's chairman Huang Hu, adding that it will use the cluster effect to promote the transfer of more technologies from the lab to the market.

As the entrepreneur said, expanding the network of international sci-tech innovation centers will help better integrate technological innovation with industrial advancement, which has also been identified as a key priority for the sci-tech ministry over the next five years. According to Yin, more efforts will focus on fostering the integration, strengthening the role of enterprises as primary drivers of innovation, and supporting the establishment of a modern industrial system.