Chongchuan district – administered by Nantong city in East China's Jiangsu province – recently issued the Several Policy Opinions on Building an Innovative and Vigorous City and Creating an Innovation Demonstration Highland, aiming to create a first-class environment that spurs business startups and innovation.

There are a total of 20 new policies that contain 50 items and deal with five major areas: moves to stimulate tech innovation of businesses, cultivate sci-tech innovative enterprises, boost development of platform carriers, enhance recruitment and training and finally intensify sci-tech financial support.

Projects involving the local government, enterprises, universities and research institutes, will be eligible for a maximum grant of 5.5 million yuan ($850,300) to encourage more R&D input.

Sci-tech enterprises that settle down in the district will be subsidized and rewarded throughout the various stages of their lifecycle, to a maximum of 6 million yuan.

Grants (check) of up to 1 million yuan will be given to enterprise innovation platforms and 1.3 million yuan to platform carriers.

To encourage participation in technological innovation and entrepreneurship competitions, winning projects will be eligible for a maximum award of 1 million yuan.

Up to 50 million yuan will be given in financial support to top innovative and entrepreneurial teams and there will be subsidies, equity investment and living allowances for staff.

Compared with measures being undertaken by other parts of Nantong, Chongchuan's latest policies are said to provide greater support, offering wider coverage and complementing municipal policies.