Baiyin National High-Tech Industrial Development Zone, one of the major cooperation projects between Gansu provincial government and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was developed following an initiative of the Baiyin government and Chinese Academy of Sciences’ High Tech Bureau at the Shenzhen Hi-Tech Fair in Oct 2001.

Construction started in July the following year, and the Gansu provincial government approved it as a provincial hi-tech development zone in July 2006. It was upgraded to a national-level high-tech industrial development zone following the approval of the State Council in Sep 2010.

The development zone is located in Baiyin’s southern suburbs and covers an area of 8.05 square kilometers, consisting of an industrial development area, living area, ecological green area and a high-tech innovation service center.

The authorities established a technology development platform, capital operation platform, policy service platform and culture platform, which allows the zone to focus on the development of non-ferrous metals, new energy materials, chemicals and fine chemicals, in addition to bio-medicine and medical equipment, and modern processing and manufacturing.

The government has also supported its aims to become a green and modern high-tech park, a base to convert the research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences into productive power and an important area of high-tech industries and industrial concentration in Gansu province and also of western China.

The development zone is expected to be responsible for over 2 percent of the provincial GDP growth, and to generate more than 25 percent of Baiyin’s GDP over the next decade.

The zone’s first phase, covering an area of two sq km, involved investment of 220 million yuan ($36.1 million). A total of nine projects, with investment of 1.9 billion yuan, are under construction and are expected to generate 4.03 billion yuan in industrial output value, and 760 million yuan in taxes.