China Hi-tech industry

The international status of China's high-tech industry has improved remarkably over the past decade. In 2007, the scale of China's high-tech manufacturing industry ranked second in the world, with its high-tech and new technology products making up around 20% of the international market.

According to statistics, China has made 493,000 important scientific and technological achievements since 1981, of which nearly 20 percent have reached the advanced international levels. To speed up the transfer of scientific and technological achievements, and promote the development of high-tech industry, the Chinese government has implemented a series of policies. At present, over 80 percent of the nation’s hi-tech force have been engaged in economic development work and the overwhelming majority of the scientific research institutes specializing in developing technology have gradually taken the road of independent development geared to market operations. In recent years, the business volume of the nation’s technology market has increased at an annual rate of over 50 percent.

New and high technology development zones have developed fast. State-level development zones of this kind now number 53, and are home to more than 20,000 enterprises, with a total of well over 100 million employees. The output value per capita of most enterprises exceed 100,000 yuan. Among them, 1,252 have registered an annual production value of over 100 million yuan, 143 over one billion yuan and six over 10 billion yuan. Some 600 research achievements above the provincial/ministerial level have been put to use in production in those zones.

Non-governmental sci-tech enterprises have also made great progress. Some of them have become group corporations with an annual output value to the tune of several hundred million or anything up to several billion yuan. High-tech products now occupy more than 50 percent of the domestic market for such products.

Establishing export bases for new and high-technology products in selected state new and high technology industrial development zones is an important part of the plan for developing trade by means of science and technology worked out and implemented by the Chinese government. The Beijing Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park and 16 state new and high technology industrial development zones in Tianjin, Shanghai, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Shandong, Hubei, Guangdong, Shaanxi, Dalian, Xiamen, Qingdao and Shenzhen have been designated as the first group of export bases, thanks to their rapid overall development, favorable hard and soft environments, and rapid increase of the export volume of new and high-technology products. In 2001, China’s export volume of such products came to US$ 46.46 billion worth, and made up 17.5 percent of the total export volume in foreign trade.

The China Hi-Tech Fair (CHTF) is a state-level, international hi-tech event held annually in October in Shenzhen. It is approved by the State Council of the People's Republic of China and jointly hosted by nine government departments and Shenzhen Municipal People's Government. Since its inception in 1999, the CHTF has provided a platform for technology companies all over the world to showcase their technological achievements, exchange information, identify collaboration partners and explore business opportunities. It is one of the most influential events for high- technology sectors in China