Innovation pays huge dividends

"For Royole, Shenzhen is China's answer to Silicon Valley," Liu said.

After quitting his job at IBM as an engineer and research scientist in 2012, Liu, then 29, started his business by creating two operation facilities in Shenzhen and Silicon Valley in the United States.

"In Shenzhen, a startup company will find it easy to turn technologies into real products as the city has developed a very sound industrial chain - from raw materials, chips, electronic components and parts to circuit boards," he said.

After four rounds of investment from overseas venture capital, following the introduction of a series of innovative technologies, Royole has now developed into a global company with a market value in excess of $1 billion.

Royole's success story is no isolated example.

According to the Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Commission, the city now has more than 4,700 high-tech companies, mainly focusing on fourth-generation technology, ultra-material, three-dimension display and gene sequence.

DJI Technology Co, for example, has become a global leader in the manufacturing of drones, after it was established nine years ago with just six staff members in a small apartment in Shenzhen's Lianhuabei area.

When the company was launched it was manufacturing unmanned aerial vehicles, as drones are officially known, without moving cameras.

"We have made great efforts in developing new technologies and products by installing safe moving cameras on units, which helped create a huge consumer market," said Wang Tao, the founder of DJI.

Its products now account for nearly 70 percent of the world's small-scale consumer drone market.