A view of Anji county, Huzhou, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/WeChat account: huzhoufabu]

Huzhou's Anji county recently passed an evaluation conducted by the Ministry of Science and Technology on the first group of innovation-driven counties in China.

The ministry had in 2018 launched the campaign to strengthen innovation capabilities among counties and set the goal of building 100 innovation-driven counties by 2025.

The first group of 47 counties or county-level cities included in the campaign is required to leverage science and technology to bolster either industrial development, ecological civilization or people's livelihoods.

Anji has made strides in improving its innovation capability in recent years.

The county is currently home to two national business incubators, one national maker space and eight provincial maker spaces.

It has also inaugurated five industrial innovation enclaves in cities including Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Hefei.

Over the past three years, 117 high-tech enterprises and 330 small and medium-sized science and technology enterprises, 47 provincial company-based R&D centers, 28 provincial research institutes and two provincial agricultural research facilities were established in Anji.

During the same period, the local government also brought in eight scientific research teams and 29 top-tier talents.