Fostering Innovation in Chinese Industrial Parks

Abstract

[Extract] The last two decades have witnessed a rise in the economic growth of China, with an average annual increase in gross domestic product (GDP) of more than 9% per year. It is now generally accepted that government intervention has, at times, played a positive role in promoting economic growth in China (Linden, 2004). To develop technological competitiveness and catalyse economic growth at the nation, state, and city levels, the Chinese government has enacted a series of national high- and new-technology industrial development programs, namely, the Torch Program, within the context of the country's evolving national innovation system. Within this system, one of the important aims of Chinese government's industrial policy is to establish high-technology industrial parks and development zones. As a group, China's high-technology industrial parks and development zones have grown dramatically in recent years. The number of science and technology industrial parks and development zones approved by the State Council was 53 in 1991, and this number has increased to 254 in 2013. The total revenue for all zones reached 16,569 billion RMB in 2012. Their export achieved US$376.04 billion, 18.4% of all the foreign trade (News Letter: Torch-Centre of Ministry of Science and Technology, 2013).