Shaanxi’s Xixian New Area: Redefining Innovation and Growth in Western China

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Shaanxi, situated in western China, is renowned for its extensive historical landmarks and profound cultural legacy. Yet, Xixian New Area is reshaping the province’s stereotype by emerging as a trendsetter in China, focusing on advancing regional high-quality development through scientific and technological innovation.

In 2021, Shaanxi launched the Qinchuangyuan Platform, an innovation-driven hub dedicated to fostering a comprehensive incubator, accelerating the utilization of scientific and technological research outcomes, and facilitating the integration of talent and industry chains to propel regional high-quality development, as stated by the Xixian New Area Administrative Committee.

As China’s premier national-level new area emphasizing innovative urban growth, Xixian New Area serves as the primary platform for the Qinchuangyuan initiative, continuously invigorating regional economic dynamics by reforming key sectors and enhancing the efficiency of the innovation-driven ecosystem.

In 2022, Shaanxi initiated three reforms enabling and supporting scientific and technological researchers in provincial-level institutions and universities to transform their research achievements into marketable projects, further fueling innovation and entrepreneurial spirit among scientific and technological professionals.

This policy framework has been widely adopted and has evolved into a comprehensive service chain, promoting the utilization of scientific and technological research outcomes and yielding significant results across the province.

Following the policy implementation, the province witnessed a consistent annual increase of over 30 percent in contracted technology transactions for three consecutive years.

In the previous year, Shaanxi achieved a record high of 412.076 billion yuan in contracted technology transactions, with 35,124 local technology utilization contracts, accounting for 50.38 percent of the total contracts. Local technology utilization generated 160.117 billion yuan, representing 38.86 percent of the total turnover.

With the Qinchuangyuan Platform’s support, high-tech and advanced manufacturing industries such as hydrogen energy, photovoltaics, intelligent networked vehicles, special vehicles, biomedicine, CNC machine tools, and aerospace have experienced rapid growth in Xixian New Area.

By the end of 2023, the number of national high-tech enterprises and small and medium-sized scientific and technological firms in the area increased by 5.8 times and 5.5 times, respectively, compared to 2021.

Tech startups in Xixian are flourishing, with companies like Sensecraft Technology and Hydrotransformer experiencing market valuation increases of 30 times and 120 times, respectively, in just a few years. Firms like XiopmSpace have achieved significant breakthroughs in industry core technologies.

Xixian New Area has become the driving force of Shaanxi and even northwest China, with its GDP increasing by 7.9 percent year on year last year, 2.3 times higher than in 2017, and doubling its per capita regional GDP.

While advancing its own development, Xixian New Area promotes regional coordination by optimizing industrial development layouts and supporting other cities in Shaanxi.

The establishment of the Qinchuangyuan Innovation Promotion Center Alliance with 13 member centers across Shaanxi and the issuance of ten initiatives to enhance coordination among different cities exemplify Xixian’s commitment to regional development.
The government work report for 2024 in Shaanxi aims to strengthen innovation leadership by executing eight significant actions in science and technology innovation.

The province plans to create approximately 20 provincial-level Qinchuangyuan future industrial innovation clusters, leveraging science and technology, talent, and capital to boost the added value of strategic emerging industries by 8 percent.

As Shaanxi’s sole national new area, Xixian New Area has outlined a detailed plan for high-quality development in 2024, focusing on modernizing its industrial system and intensifying reform and innovation to achieve comprehensive progress.

Yang Renhua, Party secretary of the Administrative Committee of Xixian New Area, emphasizes the area’s role as the primary carrier of the Qinchuangyuan Platform, pushing forward the three reforms, exploring new development avenues, and contributing to China’s modernization efforts.