http://www.bjreview.com AUGUST 29, 2019 BEIJING REVIEW 13
and from network security to commercial
aerospace, Wuhan is accelerating its pace
of innovation, creating new energy for
green growth.
Foreign capital is another engine.
Against the backdrop of a turbulent global
economic situation, paid-in foreign invest-
ment in Wuhan increased by 13.3 percent
year on year, totaling $10.93 billion in- Representing the rise of central
China, it has become a new magnet for for-
eign investors.
Earlier this year, the city government
adopted 12 policies to attract foreign
capital. For instance, foreign-invested
unicorns—startups valued at $1 billion
or more—will enjoy an incentive of 5 mil-
lion yuan ($708,700) if they set up shop
in Wuhan. R&D platforms led by foreign
companies are entitled to a grant of up
to 2.5 million yuan ($354,400). In addi-
tion, foreign-funded companies enjoy
equal treatment as domestic enterprises,
improved investment protection, and
facilitated registration and other documen-
tation processes.
This year, drawing on the experience of
Beijing and Shanghai, Wuhan issued a plan
for business environment optimization.
It simplifies official procedures, reduces
the time needed to complete them, and
facilitates trade. This has slashed the time
for customs clearance by 10 percent while
import and export compliance costs have
been cut by more than 10 percent.
“Excluding the first-tier cities along
the coast, Wuhan will grow into the most
promising, largest, and most competitive
emerging city in China,” Yao Yang, Dean
of the National School of Development of
Peking University, said at a recent forum,
expressing the hope that Wuhan would play
a key role in the high-quality development
of the entire nation. Q
it holds nearly all the first records in the
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About 10 percent of the annual sales
revenue is invested in research and devel-
opment (R&D) to boost innovation for not
only the industry but also the development
of Wuhan. Many other enterprises with
strong R&D ability such as Chinese smart-
phone maker Xiaomi also have their bases
in the zone.
From computer memory to smart cars,XINHUAThe Future City, part of the Optics Valley in Wuhan,
central China’s Hubei Province, in December 2016Copyedited by Sudeshna Sarkar
Comments to [email protected]it is home to emerging industry projects
worth 400 billion yuan ($56.7 billion). The
518-square-km zone has several industrial
clusters with high technologies such as bi-
ology and geomatics.
The FiberHome Technologies Group, a
leading equipment vendor in information
technology and telecommunications, is
one of the largest enterprises in the Optics
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