The first delegation of Chinese pharmaceutical entrepreneurs visits Singapore. [Photo/WeChat account: wxlishui]

The Lishui Economic and Technological Development Zone – located in Lishui city in East China's Zhejiang province – is exploring ways of adding new value to its health and medicine industry by going global and embracing innovation.

One example of this is Zhejiang Wuyangtang Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, a resident company that exports its products to major Southeast Asian countries and works on developing new overseas markets every year. In 2022, the company's export volume reached 120 million yuan ($17.43 million), a record high.

Going global means more than just selling products abroad. It also involves spreading Chinese culture, expanding business models, building brand values and engaging in other multidimensional projects.

To achieve this goal, Zhejiang Weikang Pharmaceutical Co Ltd initiated a pharmaceutical entrepreneurs' cultural tour that successfully concluded recently. This was the first such delegation to go abroad after a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They visited Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and other destinations to participate in cultural exhibitions, promotions and exchanges with local counterparts.

Besides going overseas, the zone is also fostering innovation by building the city's first Shanghai-based innovation enclave that focuses on investment in the health and medicine industry in core cities in the Yangtze River Delta region.

An enclave economy is a cross-regional administrative management and economic cooperation model that breaks the administrative division between two or more independent administrative regions, in order to achieve coordinated economic development.

At present, six pharmaceutical companies have settled in the enclave, introducing more than 300 high-level professionals.