The first step in bringing in what now are more than 22 hundred hi-tech enterprises began in the late ‘80s when the Zhuhai government decided to compensate scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs what they were worth.

At the time, scientific and technical personnel in China were way underpaid and Zhuhai's own economy was labor-intensive. Many big cities were then offering merely 10,000 ($1,432) to 20,000 yuan ($2,864) in incentives to attract talented personnel. Meanwhile, other countries were far advanced in sci-tech development. China had to develop an economy that relied on scientific and technological progress.

Sensing opportunity, the Zhuhai Special Economic Zone (SEZ) bucked the trend and instead began granting multi-million-yuan sci-tech awards. The focus from industries being labor intensive to technology-based took place in 1988. Then, during the Two Sessions of Guangdong Province in March 1991, Zhuhai Party Secretary Liang Guangda revealed the intent to present automobiles, residences, and other handsome incentives to sci-tech staff who make prominent contributions.

Two months later, Zhuhai's 1st Award Conference for Outstanding Contributions to Scientific & Technological Progress gave out three grand-prizes, one first-prize, and one fourth-prize certificate along with keys to cars and residences on March 9, 1991. According to incomplete statistics, the city invested 600 million yuan ($86 million) to attract 28 sci-tech enterprises and more than 130 overseas students that year.

Winners of 1991 Zhuhai Scientific & Technological Progress awards [Photo by Ye Qiuming / WeChat account: zhtqb12345]

The new practice faced criticism in the country, but Deng Xiaoping, chief designer of China's Reform & Opening Up, however, spoke highly of the practice during his second visit in Zhuhai in January 1992.

Since then, Zhuhai has continued to show unstinted appreciation for knowledge and talents. It has continued to augment large-sum awards as long-term incentive mechanisms empowered by science and technology.

Over the next three years, 23,000 sci-tech staff and more than 800 overseas students settled in Zhuhai. More than 5,000 talents brought more than 400 sci-tech achievements to the city and attracted more than 800 million yuan ($115 million) in investment.

From 1992 to 2003, Zhuhai offered the multiple-million sci-tech awards to prominent contributors of 31 projects. Eighteen individuals were granted Audi automobiles and 23 chief researchers received residences. The largest incentive grant was 6.57 million yuan ($942,800).

In addition to the sci-tech awards, Zhuhai also formulated relevant policies, laws, and regulations. It took the lead in the country in incentivizing technology investment and talent development in 1999 and again in 2013.

In 2016, the city released the Regulations to Boost Private Economy in Zhuhai SEZ, which offers incentives for appraising human capital such as R&D and management as a kind of capital stock.

The Zhuhai Talent Program, initiated in 2018, is considered the most forward-looking policy package in Zhuhai history. It has provided generous government grants totaling 6.7 billion yuan ($959 million) -- unprecedented in the Pearl River Delta and even the country -- to attract talents over five years.

As of 2019, Zhuhai was home to 2,212 hi-tech enterprises, 17 provincial new-type R&D institutions, 406 innovation platforms above provincial level, 34 sci-tech incubators, 34 maker spaces, 14 provincial leading talents, six provincial innovation and entrepreneurship teams, and 13 municipal academician workstations. The city also made the top 10 in the 2019 index in the Sci-Tech Innovation & Development Report of Chinese Cities.