The 2017 list of top 100 Zhejiang enterprises, an indicator of the province's industrial improvement, was jointly released by Zhejiang Enterprise Confederation, Zhejiang Enterprise Directors Association and Zhejiang Federation of Industrial Economics on Sept 25.

The primary criterion of getting on the list is the annual sales and this year's threshold amount for entrants is 4152.52 billion yuan ($625.75 billion), an increase of 1.43 billion yuan as compared to last year.

The upgrading and transformation of Zhejiang's industrial structure is reflected on the list. Traditional companies specializing in paper products, stationery and sporting goods, optical lenses, office supplies and photoelectric cameras failed to get elected on the 2017 list.

"The number of companies from the tertiary industry growing," said Zheng Yifang, secretary-general of the three organizations. Though manufacturing enterprises still make up a large proportion of the list, the service sector is the major engine that is boosting Zhejiang's economy, Zheng said.

Companies' sales growth can be partly attributed to internationalization and strategies of merger and acquisition. Fifty-four of the 100 companies on the list submitted numbers of overseas incomes representing 10.83 percent of their total sales income. Twenty-four companies went through mergers and acquisitions last year. Zhejiang Geely Holding Co gained 145.29 billion yuan from its overseas businesses, ranking first among the listed companies. Yinyi Group based in Ningbo acquired 14 companies, including three high-tech manufacturing ones in the United States, Japan and Belgium.

By analyzing the growth rates of sales, experts found that generally, the rapidly developing companies were those that paid more attention to new technologies and products.