A snapshot of Yichang High-tech Zone
2023-05-15 19:05:30
Yichang High-tech Zone is a vast area of 209 square kilometers with a resident population of about 200,000.
It is home to three major industrial parks – Dongshan Park, Bio-Industrial Park and Baiyang Park – and key companies in biomedicine, new chemical materials and high-end equipment manufacturing.
The Bangpu project of leading Chinese battery-maker CATL and the Sunwoda Dongfeng Yichang power battery base are two projects of great importance to the province and to China’s burgeoning EV industry.
The zone was founded way back in 1988. It started out modestly enough before being upgraded to a national level high-tech zone in 2010, and then developing further in 2017 with the creation of the Yichang Free Trade Zone, the first free trade zone in Hubei outside the provincial capital Wuhan.
The Yichang Free Trade Zone boasts international train connections to Europe and Asia as well as a cross-border e-commerce industrial park.
The zone currently ranks 43rd among all national high-tech zones in terms of competitiveness. 215 high-tech enterprises and 433 technology-based SMEs have been nurtured there, together with four national R&D platforms, six national science and technology business incubators and eight national crowdsourcing spaces.
In 2022, the zone achieved total industrial output value of 27.46 billion yuan (US$3.95 billion), a year-on-year surge of 30 percent. The area’s imports and exports make up 28 percent of the Yichang City total, and foreign-funded enterprises in the zone account for 31 percent of the city’s total.
It is home to three major industrial parks – Dongshan Park, Bio-Industrial Park and Baiyang Park – and key companies in biomedicine, new chemical materials and high-end equipment manufacturing.
The Bangpu project of leading Chinese battery-maker CATL and the Sunwoda Dongfeng Yichang power battery base are two projects of great importance to the province and to China’s burgeoning EV industry.
The zone was founded way back in 1988. It started out modestly enough before being upgraded to a national level high-tech zone in 2010, and then developing further in 2017 with the creation of the Yichang Free Trade Zone, the first free trade zone in Hubei outside the provincial capital Wuhan.
The Yichang Free Trade Zone boasts international train connections to Europe and Asia as well as a cross-border e-commerce industrial park.
The zone currently ranks 43rd among all national high-tech zones in terms of competitiveness. 215 high-tech enterprises and 433 technology-based SMEs have been nurtured there, together with four national R&D platforms, six national science and technology business incubators and eight national crowdsourcing spaces.
In 2022, the zone achieved total industrial output value of 27.46 billion yuan (US$3.95 billion), a year-on-year surge of 30 percent. The area’s imports and exports make up 28 percent of the Yichang City total, and foreign-funded enterprises in the zone account for 31 percent of the city’s total.
Photo by Zhu Fajin.
