For the first time, the Hefei National Economic and Technological Development Zone in East China’s Anhui province was named as one of the top 10 national ETDZs for overall development, coming in 10th place, the Ministry of Commerce announced on Thursday.

This was also the first time a State-level ETDZ in China’s central and western regions was ranked in the top 10 list, which is based on the ministry’s evaluation results of China’s 217 national ETDZs according to their overall development levels in 2020.

The Hefei ETDZ also took fifth place in terms of utilized foreign capital.

In 2020, the GDP of these 217 zones hit 11 trillion yuan (about $1.73 trillion), an increase of 5.6 percent year-on-year, accounting for 11 percent of the country’s total GDP.

Founded in April 1993, the Hefei National ETDZ witnessed its GDP expand 6.1 percent year-on-year to 111.44 billion yuan in 2020.

During the same period, the imports and exports of the Hefei National ETDZ increased by 8 percent year-on-year to $13.8 billion.

The Top 10 ETDZs for overall development are as follows:

Suzhou Industrial Park, Jiangsu province

Guangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone, Guangdong province

Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone

Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Zone

Kunshan Economic and Technological Development Zone, Jiangsu province

Jiangning Economic and Technological Development Zone, Jiangsu province

Qingdao Economic and Technological Development Zone, Shandong province

Yantai Economic and Technological Development Zone, Shandong province

Hangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone, Zhejiang province

Hefei Economic and Technological Development Zone, Anhui province