Ten technology experts from various universities in Jiangsu province paid a visit to Tongzhou on Aug 22 – to hold talks with executives its companies and offer guidance to local technicians.

Chen Weiping, vice governor of Tongzhou, said that while included in various national development strategies, his district was in serious need of new impetus in its regional development. 

Chen encouraged the experts to give advice on Tongzhou’s industrial upgrading and transformation. 

He also called for local enterprises to seize the opportunity to attract more top-grade staff and bring projects to Tongzhou.

The Tongzhou government has placed emphasis on the development of an innovation-driven economy in recent years. It has launched a number of preferential policies to attract more brains to local industries.  

To date, Tongzhou has attracted 688 top entrepreneurs and experts, among whom 69 are state-recognized talents, local officials said. 

A number of industrial and technological research institutes -- in areas such as textiles,  architecture, ship building and new energy vehicle design -- have located in Tongzhou and 199 high-tech enterprises have been established.

Last year, the district’s GDP hit 126.9 billion yuan ($17.73 billion), of which the total output value of high-tech industries accounted for 50.7 percent.