Industrial parks link to global leading creatives

Chengdu is boosting innovative development through cooperation with the world's leading industrial parks and construction of Sino-foreign cooperative industrial parks.

The Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone and Sophia Antipolis Science and Technology Park, Europe's leading science and technology park, in France, signed a cooperation agreement on July 2 and will become "sister technology parks".

According to the agreement, the two high-tech parks will cooperate in technological innovation and trade and investment. They will jointly hold forums, seminars and meetings, and arrange exchange visits for technology enterprises based in both parks.

As part of the cooperation, Sophia Antipolis Science and Technology Park will establish its China Innovation Center in the city's high-tech zone.

Pierre Laffitte, founder and chairman of Sophia Antipolis Science and Technology Park, said his park is focused on Chengdu because of its prominent place in China's innovative landscape.

"The agreement marks our all-round cooperation with Chengdu. We expect to foster multinational industrial clusters in areas such as biomedicine, information technology, new energy and environmental protection," he said.

Many countries have cooperated with China to build industrial parks in the city.

During Premier Li Keqiang's visit to the Republic of Korea last October, he and ROK President Park Geun-hye agreed to build a China-ROK Innovation and Entrepreneurship Park in Chengdu.

In April, the Chengdu high-tech zone revealed that the park will be located in the Jingrong International Plaza in Chengdu, during a cooperation agreement signing ceremony with Korea Investment Partners, a venture capital investment company owned by Korea Investment Holdings.

The two sides will establish a 500 million yuan ($74.8 million) fund to support innovations and startups, according to the agreement.

The Sino-French Ecological Park is a national-level project established by China and France in 2014 in Chengdu's Longquanyi district. It focuses on strategic emerging industries such as energy saving and environmental protection, new energy, new materials and high-end equipment manufacturing.

Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile, a joint venture between French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen and Chinese automaker Dongfeng Motor Corp, chose the park as the location for its fourth factory in China with investment of 12.3 billion yuan.

The factory is expected to go into commercial operation in October this year. It has a planned annual production capacity of 360,000 automobiles.

The Sino-German SME Cooperation Park in Pujiang county has attracted 50 companies engaged in precision machines and related industries, including Bosch Power Tools and Bosch Packaging Technology.

The Bosch Group has set up its first Asia-Pacific R&D center for packaging technology in the park, according to Mao Yongjiu, director of the general management department of Pujiang Industrial Zone Administrative Committee.

It is expected that the park will have attracted 100 foreign-invested enterprises by 2020, generating a total output value of 10 billion yuan, Mao said.

Under the framework of the Sino-Cuba cooperation in biotechnology, the city is also building a Chengdu International Bio-tech Industry Town. Covering an area of 45 square kilometers, it will focus on biomedicine and biomedical engineering.

The Singapore-Sichuan High-tech Innovation Park, jointly developed by Singapore and the Sichuan provincial government, is an integrated modern new town that serves innovation-driven enterprises and creative talents.

Commitments have been made by 20 companies to set up R&D centers and headquarters in the park, with a total investment of more than 18 billion yuan.

Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone vows to become world's leading investment destination. Photos provided to China Daily

A made-in-China Volvo rolls off the production line in Chengdu ready to be exported to the United States.

Automatics melding robots at a startup firm in Chenghua district in Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan province.

(China Daily 07/23/2016 page25)