Bengbu National High and New Technology Industrial Development Zone, in East China's Anhui province, has a planned area of 136 square kilometers and an population of about 150,000.
It was established in April 1994 and promoted by the State Council, China's cabinet, as a national development zone in November 2010.
To date, the development zone is home to more than 1,900 enterprises, 68 of which were certified as national high-tech enterprises and some 40 of which are receiving foreign investment. In 2017 alone, the zone saw the registration of 505 new enterprises, a year-on-year growth of 13 percent.
With silica-based new materials, electronic information and high-end equipment manufacturing as three pillar industries, the high-tech zone is building up a "3+N" development system featuring mainly display technologies (LED and OLED), biological medicine, electronic commerce and the service industry.
In 2017, the high-tech zone's GDP growth totaled 12.5 billion yuan ($1.82 billion), a year-on-year increase of 10.7 percent, while its fiscal revenue added up to 2.35 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.6 percent. The export and import volume amounted to $320 million, the second highest in Bengbu city.
In terms of technological innovation, the zone filed 126 patents in 2017 and climbed to the 42nd position of the list of 157 national high-tech development zones.