Industrial clusters

The zone's management committee has long been committed to building industrial clusters to support the regional economic upgrade.

Shengrui Transmission's 8-gear automatic transmissions products are acting as another magnet for the zone, attracting businesses along the manufacturer's industrial chain.

State-owned Shandong Hi-tech Innovation Group began construction of an industrial park for Shengrui in May 2016. The park is home to many of Shengrui's key suppliers, including Shaanxi Aerospace Power Hi-tech.

"Shengrui's control over its core technologies is a key reason for attracting premium projects," said Ma Wenquan, director of the zone's investment promotion bureau. Ma added that the zone had established a new model which had a snowballing dynamic, where one successful investor could attract a group of investors and a leading business could attract a group of leading businesses.

Ma also said the zone's management committee would continue to assist existing top companies based there to attract other businesses along the industrial chain to build local industrial clusters.

Weichai Group, for example, plans to invest 50 billion yuan to build one of the largest new-energy power development industrial parks in China — covering 333 hectares — by 2030. GoerTek, meanwhile, is set to construct a smart and virtual reality-powered production plant.

In a different sphere of operations, Sunshine Insurance Group plans to work with its partners from Israeli and the United States to develop a health city project. The company says it will invest 3 billion yuan to build a health-centered industrial park in the next few years.

Officials said the zone was also taking measures to attract more resources from home and abroad, and build more platforms to strengthen innovation capability. They added that the zone was focused on its efforts to help companies to obtain more resources to support their innovation efforts. With support from the zone, local companies have obtained 48.4 million yuan in funding from the provincial government in the year to date.