County in Hebei province eyes innovative future

Gu'an, a county in China's Hebei province, 50 kilometers away from Beijing's Tiananmen Square, is looking to build an innovation-driven county.

Aiming to become a home for high-tech companies, the county announced a plan to create the Beijing South Science and Technology Innovation Valley, comprising an area of 6.4 square kilometers, with China Fortune Land Development Co, during the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Forum of the Science and Technology Innovation Board held on Friday.

According to plans for the valley, it will recommend a batch of companies located in the valley to feature on the upcoming science and technology innovation board in the short term, attract a number of companies with listing potential to move to the valley in the medium term, and foster startups with core technologies, intellectual properties and the capacity to list on the sci/tech board in next five to 10 years.

The valley will also create a platform to provide technology, finance and listing services to these companies.

The valley will realize its targets to have ten companies listed on the sci/tech board, dozens of international innovative platforms, hundreds of technology service institutions and marquee companies paying billions in tax, thousands of cutting-edge technology companies and products with hundreds of billion in revenue, and tens of thousands of patents, high-level talent and market players by 2025, said the plan.

The county will continue with efforts to create a good investment climate, said Sun Lina, county governor of Gu'an. In addition, the county has established eight industry funds worth 20 billion yuan for supporting the companies' development.

Gu'an has formed industrial clusters, including those focused on aerospace, bioengineering and pharmaceuticals and the internet of things, with hundreds of high-tech companies located in the county.

The science and technology innovation board was first proposed last November and was approved late January.

It will focus on companies in high-tech and strategically emerging sectors such as new generation information technology, advanced equipment, new materials and energy, and biomedicine.

The sci/tech board is of great strategic significance for China's capital market and financial supply-side reform, said Wu Xiaoqiu, vice-president of Renmin University of China, at the forum.

Wu said information disclosure requirements should adjust to suit the sci/tech board and that the penalties for listing companies that violate rules should be severely increased.