Tianhe district in Guangzhou ranked third in the top 100 districts in 2022 in terms of innovation capacity, according to the list recently released by CCID Consulting.

The list assessed 906 districts under the jurisdiction of prefecture-level cities around the country in four aspects – innovation ecology, innovative impetus, innovative subjects and innovative achievements.

Innovation has been the main driving force of Tianhe's development. By the end of 2021, the district newly added 34,000 technology enterprises, accounting for 38.2 percent of the city's total. The number of high-tech enterprises reached 2,995, which is 26 percent of the city's total.

Tianhe district is full of vitality. [Photo/WeChat account: tianhefabu]

Two enterprises were identified as national "little giants", and five companies entered China's top 10 internet enterprises and four made the list of top 100 new science and technology enterprises in 2021.

A "little giant" is a firm that has seen a minimum 5 percent year-on-year average growth rate of its main business income or net profit in the past two years, must have two valid invention patents or other similar forms of proof of its innovation capabilities, and dedicate at least 3 percent of its top innovations to R&D.

The Guangdong branch of the China Academy of Industrial Internet settled in the district last year. The International Guangzhou Science and Technology Achievement Transformation Tianhe Base introduced a total of 28 innovative projects, and incubated 16 world-leading and breakthrough achievements.

In 2021, four national incubators were newly added in Tianhe, ranking first among all the districts and counties in the country. The number of granted patents in the district was 29,000, ranking first in Guangzhou for 19 consecutive years. Ten achievements were selected into the State Science and Technology Awards, accounting for 45.5 percent of the city total.