NW China's supporting policies help boost innovation, high-quality development

XI'AN, April 6 (Xinhua) -- A piece of plasticine-like nanomaterial was easily stretched by hand by researchers who were showing the material's incredible resistance to hard blows from external forces.

The intelligent endergonic nanomaterial which can be applied in protective equipment manufacturing is developed by Tuoruikao, a new material technology company in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, among the province's hundreds of high-tech start-ups.

Shaanxi is home to more than 100 higher learning institutions, over 1,300 research institutes and millions of technical personnel.

However, only a few scientific research achievements could be transformed into well-received products on the market in the past, which loomed large over the province's long-term growth momentum.

To unleash the great potential, Shaanxi's Xixian New Area, also the province's only national new area, introduced targeted policies and formed a professional team of nearly 40 technology managers in 2021 to tap into valuable science projects, which helps link scientists and engineers with entrepreneurs.

So far, the area has partnered with 14 higher learning institutions including Xi'an Jiaotong University and Northwestern Polytechnical University and seven research institutes, while a total of 431 technology companies settled down in the area last year.

Tuoruikao's resilient nanomaterial is among the very first program carried out in the area's creative cooperation mechanism.

It took just about four months to come out of the laboratory and into the market, said Zhang Yanfeng, a professor from Xi'an Jiaotong University who now also works as the leading researcher at Tuoruikao.

"We excel at scientific research, but when it comes to market operation, we have to rely on the entrepreneurs," said Zhang, noting that the new cooperation model helps all parties efficiently establish a whole industry chain from raw material production and development to marketing.

According to the area's industrial development plan during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021 to 2025), several leading industry clusters will be formed in a differentiated but orderly way so as to expand and upgrade its current industrial chains.

"The new area has become a major driving engine of Shaanxi's development and its innovative development model can further empower the province's economic transition and upgrade," said Ma Lili, deputy dean of the school of economics and management at Northwest University in Shaanxi.

In the first quarter of 2022, multiple agreements on 48 projects have been signed with a total investment of over 86 billion yuan (about 13.5 billion U.S. dollars) in the area, marking a record high in its investment amount.

Enterprises ranging from new material and biomedicine to intelligent manufacturing and the Internet of Things are expected to further fuel the high-quality development of the local economy.