When the Chinese central government released an overall plan for the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port on June 1, 2020, it required Hainan to build a high-tech platform to drive its high-quality growth.

Two days after the plan's release, the Sanya Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City was founded. Since then, the sci-tech city has rapidly grown into a high-tech engine for Hainan's development, with a focus on such areas as deep-sea technology, and crop seed breeding.

The sci-tech city has a planned area of 69.3 square kilometers, consisting of the Nanfan Breeding Sci-Tech Town, the Deep-Sea Sci-Tech Town, Nanshan Port and a number of other industrial parks.

Over the past years, the sci-tech city has achieved rapid and healthy growth, which is demonstrated in a series of impressive numbers.

Data show that the sci-tech city created more than 20,000 jobs by the end of 2023.

A total of 196 industrial projects had been completed by the end of 2023, with fixed asset investment totaling 74.56 billion yuan ($10.31 billion).

By the end of 2023, Yazhou Bay had 34 research platforms, including 29 at the national, provincial or ministerial levels. In comparison, there were only two such platforms in 2020, nine in 2021 and 20 in 2022.

One such platform is the Yazhou Bay agro-tech platform, which has gathered 43 agricultural technology service providers to serve its 1,808 registered members.

High-level professionals are flocking to Yazhou Bay to seek opportunities. It attracted 2,314 high-level professionals in 2023. This was in comparison with 1,448 in 2022, 487 in 2021 and 44 in 2020.

By 2023, the sci-tech city was home to 10 innovation teams led by members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering. A total of 41 CAS and CAE academicians, as well as 458 overseas professionals are now working in Yazhou Bay.

To train more professionals to support its growth, the sci-tech city has developed a higher education system for postgraduate students.

To date, a number of renowned universities in China have launched 14 research institutes in Yazhou Bay for the training of postgraduates. By the end of 2023, these facilities had a total enrollment of more than 4,000 students.

To create a favorable investment environment, offering better services to businesses is a top priority of local authorities. One of their efforts is to increase efficiency in service by streamlining administrative approval procedures. The local administrative approval center now offers all kinds of services under one roof.

In addition, the great autonomy in administrative approval authorized by the Hainan provincial and Sanya city authorities also leads the great improvement in efficiency.

According to local officials, the delegation of power in administrative approval started in 2020. By the end of 2023, the provincial and city authorities had delegated 233 approval items to the sci-tech city's administrative service center.

The improved business environment has encouraged entrepreneurship. The sci-tech city was home to 10,699 business entities by the end of 2023, including 24 businesses funded by Fortune Global 500 companies and 154 high-tech companies recognized by the State.

In comparison, there were 2,612 registered business entities in 2020, 4,638 in 2021 and 7,326 in 2022.

The Deep-Sea Public Platform for Sci-Tech Innovation in Yazhou Bay. CHINA DAILY

By Yuan Shenggao | China Daily