A view of the new incubation base in ZhongKe Innovation Plaza in Hai'an. It was officially opened on April 15, with a slew of industry-university-research projects already lined up to settle there. [Photo/ntfabu.com]

The ZhongKe Innovation Plaza – located in the Shanghu Innovation Zone, in the county-level city of Hai'an in East China's Jiangsu province – opened a new start-up incubation base on April 15, with a number of industry-university-research projects already committed to settling there.

The Shanghu Innovation Zone is one of the 10 distinctive professional parks planned and constructed by Hai'an and it is an industrial zone that integrates a great quality of life for its residents with scientific research facilities.

Breaking ground in 2018, the zone has since been equipped with increasingly complete infrastructure after three years of construction.

Top facilities – represented by the Nantong Institute of Technology and the Hai'an ETDZ Experimental School – have progressively been established in the zone and the construction of the Shanghu 3A-grade hospital is currently progressing smoothly.

The ZhongKe Innovation Plaza was built by the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development, or CASTD – with strategic cooperation partner Sinomaster Group – and it cost 1.8 billion yuan ($276.6 million).

The new incubation base has floor space covering 50,000 square meters, which can accommodate 120 scientific and technological enterprises and more than 3,000 innovative and entrepreneurial people.

Following the agreements signed at the opening ceremony, 12 projects – involved in artificial intelligence, intelligent vision and high-end home design – are to settle in the base.

Yang Bin, president of CASTD, said that over the past 30 years since the foundation of the academy, it has focused on the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. It has also focused on the incubation of scientific and technological enterprises and the cultivation of scientific and technological industries – and has explored new ways to promote the integration of science, technology and the economy.

Yang added that CASTD would conduct research into the leading industries at the incubation base. It would accelerate the establishment of an incubation supply chain for innovation and entrepreneurship, by taking the industrial development of Hai'an into account.

Yu Lizhong, Party secretary of Hai'an, said that the incubation base would focus on the introduction and incubation of enterprises engaged in the fields of high-end equipment manufacturing, new-generation information technology, modern services, new energy and new materials – in line with the city's development plan for strategic emerging industries.