Huocheng county in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region held a ceremony to award 19 start-up incubator bases located in Xinjiang's Ili Kazak autonomous prefecture on May 14.

The organizer of the awards ceremony said that the activity was aimed at encouraging start-up businesses in the region. The bases receiving the awards included the Huocheng Innovation Park of Small to Medium-Sized Enterprises and Yining city Innovation Base.

Ili prefecture is currently home to 48 start-up incubator bases, which have helped approximately 7,400 people find jobs. Factories located in the bases provide jobs for locals and contribute to social stability, according to the Ili human resource and social security bureau, who organized the ceremony.

Huocheng’s innovation park consists of 21 enterprises that collectively produced an output of over 150 million yuan ($24.2 million) in 2014. The companies have helped take 2,000 locals out of unemployment, 95 percent of whom belong to minor ethnic groups. Construction of the park started in April 2012 with an investment of 70 million yuan. It covers 33 hectares of land and contains 16 factories.

Attendees of the ceremony included Ge Guo, Huocheng's Party chief, and Xu Lei, the city's vice county mayor. The ceremony was held at the Huocheng Innovation Park of Small to Medium-Sized Enterprises.

Edited by Jacob Hooson