Chengdu Encourages Tech Innovation

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　　About one half of all iPads circulating around the globe are assembled in the southwestern metropolis¹ of Chengdu.

 

　　Already a hi-tech manufacturing base in the western region, the city is now aiming to become the next Silicon² Valley.

 

　　CRI's Hu Jia has more.

 

　　Tianfu Software Park, one of the top 3 hi-tech clusters here in China, has grown to a size of more than 20-square kilometers over the past two years.

 

　　However, the nearly 10-percent construction expansion, still can't keep up with the surging demand.

 

　　Yang Yu is the vice³ secretary-general of Chengdu's municipal government:

 

　　"We remembered when Intel chose to invest in Chengdu, everyone kept wondering where is Chengdu? But today we're home to 238 Fortune 500 companies. One in every two chips used in laptops worldwide are now made in Chengdu. We hope the total output of IT services will hit 64 billion US dollars in the future."

 

　　Also the number of local mobile internet companies has tripled from last year's level of 150.

 

　　Currently around one third of the top 10 smart phone apps in the AppStore are generated from Chengdu-based firms.

 

　　Camera 360, developed by Pinguo, the most popular photography application running on the Android platform is one example.

 

　　Ding Xiaobing, is the Vice Director General of Chengdu' Science and Technology Bureau.

 

　　He says those efforts made into intellectual property protection and management has contributed to such innovation.

 

　　"Chendu is leading the country's effort in financing through mortgages of companies' IPR. Companies like Pingguo are start-ups without huge capital. They start with a few engineers and a few computers. How do they get loans from the banks, who conventionally ask companies to mortgage a real property? We allow them to mortgage their patents, brandnames and IPR to get loans."

 

　　76 Chengdu companies have used patents as collateral⁴ to raise 660-million yuan of loans by end of 2011.

 

　　Meanwhile, multinational⁵ corporations' have also been won over by the local government's supportive policies.

 

　　Intel is one such company.

 

　　Bian Chenggang is General Manager of Intel Chengdu:

 

　　"We're looking at a certain thought leadership from the government side. The thought leadership is important. I would say the Chengdu government, the Sichuan government, they have the vision. So they'll do a lot of things to change their procedures even for the certain policies employed to encourage the ecosystem⁶ to grow."

 

　　Bian says the talent pool here is another draw for the global chip maker⁷ to continue expanding its investment to the region, which dates back to a decade ago.

 

　　"We assess the educational system, the schools and we understand the curriculums. And we understand the technical pipeline⁸. The talent pool is pretty sufficient for us to operate."

 

　　Sichuan has more than 15 universities with each school enrolling⁹ at least 10 thousand students each year.

 

　　Another selling point for Chengdu, is that the city has cut corporate¹⁰ income tax by 10-percent for companies in some 'encouraged' industries such as IT services, to help increase its competitiveness.

 

　　Whether Chengdu could reach Silicon Valley's level of size or reputation, is debatable, but the city definitely has the potential for growth.

 

　　And the good investment environment is likely to secure the attention of more top or emerging tech companies into the region.

 

　　For CRI, I'm Hu Jia.

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