The list of municipal-level awards for technological innovation was released by Yichang High-Tech Zone (HTZ) recently, with a total of 19.662 million yuan of municipal-level funds awarded to technological entities, ranking first among the counties and districts of Yichang City. Over the past three years, the HTZ has won more than 52 million yuan of municipal-level technology award funds.

　　The HTZ has been resolutely implementing the strategy of driving development through innovation with four major initiatives, including cultivating innovative entities, constructing innovative platforms, supporting technological breakthroughs, and upgrading entrepreneurial platforms, and has significantly improved the level of scientific and technological innovation in the Zone.

　　The HTZ has great efforts to further promote the “Double-increase Project” for high-tech enterprises and the cultivation project for technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises, and has introduced The Implementation Plan for the Incubation and Identification of “New Species” Enterprises in Yichang High-Tech Zone to further improve the “Progressive Cultivation” mechanism for innovative entities. As of now, 215 high-tech enterprises and 433 technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises have been cultivated in the core area of the Zone, ranking first in Yichang City in terms of quantity.

　　The HTZ has built the high-level technological innovation platform, as a result of which, Yichang Huagong Industrial Technology Research Institute has been introduced to the zone. Meanwhile, the Zone also made efforts to achieve full coverage of innovation platforms for large-scale enterprises, with 112 R&D platforms of various levels, including 64 of the provincial level and above established. Driven by these innovation platforms, the investment intensity in research and development by large-scale enterprises in the Zone has increased to 3.75%, and the number of valid invention patents per 10,000 persons has reached nearly 180, ranking first in Yichang City. Currently, the Zone has established 10 incubators and 12 maker spaces. (Reporter/Jin Zhi, Correspondent/Lin Xinxing)