China's "Silicon Valley" Expects High Speed Growth

China's "Silicon Valley", Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park, is projecting a 20 percent annual growth to post 130 billion yuan (15.6 billion U.S. dollars) of gross domestic product by the year 2010, sources from the park said.

In its latest effort to fuel the country's economy into the new millennium, China has decided to reshape Zhongguancun of Beijing into a world-class high-tech hub within 10 years, today's China Daily reports.

Located in Haidian District in northwestern Beijing, Zhongguancun encompasses 68 universities and 213 research and development (R&D institutions including the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Each year the place scores several thousand items of R&D achievements.

There are more than 4,000 firms in Zhongguancun, which chalked up sales of 45.1 billion yuan (5.4 billion U.S. dollars) last year, 43 percent of which came from software industry.

The core of the park's development program is to expand the software, information technology and computer manufacturing sectors and prioritize research in biological pharmaceuticals, new materials and environmental protection, officials with the park said.

Plans have been drafted for land use, construction of the ecological environment, traffic system and information networks.

Beijing New Technology Industry Development Experimental Zone, the kernel of the park, created three websites on Internet on August 10, further fortifying the cyberspace infrastructure for the high-tech capital.

The new websites, www.zgcpark.com, www.zgcscience.com, and expert.zhongguancun.com.cn, will allow businesses and universities in the park to share information on R&D achievements and have access to a larger pool of experts, the newspaper said.