Over the first five months of this year, Wenzhou ranked first among all cities in Zhejiang province in terms of both the growth rate of investment in its high-tech industry and the number of newly signed overseas talent recruitment programs, two indicators of an innovation-driven economy.

According to local news reports, Wenzhou's success in attracting investment and talent to its high-tech sector is largely due to the ongoing construction of the Wenzhou National Demonstration Zone for Independent Innovation and the Wenzhou Sci-Tech Innovation Corridor around Daluo Mountain.

The Wenzhou National Demonstration Zone for Independent Innovation, founded in 2018 with the approval of the State Council, is the upgraded version of the Wenzhou Zhe'nan Technology City, the city's main high-tech industrial zone.

The Wenzhou Sci-Tech Innovation Corridor around Daluo Mountain, part of a development strategy laid out in the work reports of both the municipal and provincial governments in 2019, will concentrate research and industrial resources around Daluo Mountain, including the Wenzhou National Demonstration Zone for Independent Innovation, and is expected to become an exemplary innovation-driven economic zone.

Research institutes are growing rapidly in the Wenzhou Sci-Tech Innovation Corridor around Daluo Mountain. The Wenzhou Institute of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, founded in May 2019, has so far formed 22 professional teams in research areas such as biomaterials, medical equipment, and stem cells. Wenzhou Medical University established a virus institute and a precision medicine institute in April, both chaired by Li Xiaokun, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Wenzhou also introduced 25 investment projects receiving more than 100 million yuan ($14.28 million) in its manufacturing sector between January and May. They have received a combined total of 12 billion yuan in investment. The Eye Valley, an ophthalmology industrial park in the Wenzhou National Demonstration Zone for Independent Innovation, recently opened the Central Incubator zone, which houses dozens of pharmaceutical firms and hospitals related to eye health.

A number of well-known pharmaceutical companies sign up to establish offices in the Eye Valley of Wenzhou during the opening ceremony of the Central Incubator zone on June 30. [Photo/ zj.zjol.com.cn]