The Hai'an High-tech Industrial Development Zone has smart production systems and advanced technologies to boost its innovation capacity. [Photo/ntfabu.com]

The Hai'an High-tech Industrial Development Zone – located in Nantong city, in East China's Jiangsu province – recently made it into the top 10 provincial-level high-tech zones, in a comprehensive assessment of innovation-driven development which brought with it a prize of 4.1 million yuan ($633,000).

In the appraisal for 2020 led by the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Science and Technology, the Hai'an high-tech zone moved up six spots to rank 25th among more than 50 national and provincial-level high-tech zones.

The evaluation criteria were based on innovation ability and entrepreneurial vitality, structural optimization and industrial upgrading – as well as innovation-driven and sustainable development and cross-border innovation and international competitiveness.

In 2020, the industrial taxable sales of the Hai'an high-tech zone topped 100 billion yuan, making it the first provincial high-tech zone north of the Yangtze River to realize such an achievement. In the high-quality development assessment of 17 development parks in Nantong, the Hai'an high-tech zone claimed second place and overtook three other high-tech zones in the city.

Statistics showed that the zone currently has 136 national high-tech enterprises, including Jiangsu Tiemao Glass Co Ltd and Jiangsu Eagle-Globe Group Co Ltd. There are 203 innovation carriers there at all levels, including 10 national R&D institutions and industrial alliances, as well as 107 provincial R&D institutions. Five enterprises went to the provincial gazelle list – companies expanding by leaps and bounds – due to their high growth rate.

Over the past three years, more than 300 industry-university-research projects have been carried out in the Hai'an high-tech zone and the total contract value topped 400 million yuan, according to an official.