Workers at the construction site for a national radio, film and television media base at East Lake High-tech Development Zone in Wuhan, Hubei province, the region hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic in China. [Photo/Xinhua]

Wuhan high-tech zone has reduced costs, rent and taxes to aid companies

All major industrial enterprises have returned to work at East Lake High-tech Development Zone, also known as Optics Valley, in Wuhan, Hubei province, according to the zone's management committee.

Major service enterprises, real estate development and construction enterprises, and new and high-tech enterprises in the zone have also resumed production, it said.

The zone, dubbed the city's Silicon Valley, boasts more than 90,000 enterprises. The high-tech zone, which is the base of China's optoelectronic industry, has a 25 percent share of the world market and more than 60 percent of China's in terms of optical fiber.

Zhu Xiaohan, director of the investment promotion bureau of the management committee of Optics Valley, said as the major high-tech zone in Wuhan, Optics Valley has been leading the city in resuming work and production, while employing strict epidemic prevention and control measures.

The zone has made full use of intelligent temperature measuring equipment, 5G remote diagnosis platforms and novel coronavirus test kits produced by enterprises located in the zone to assist its epidemic prevention and control efforts, he said.

In addition, it also strengthened policy support, including reductions in costs, rent and taxes to help affected enterprises, he said.

It has sped up allocation of funding for scientific research, employment incentives and social security to help enterprises cope with external risks, he said.

"The zone has more than 1,000 foreign enterprises and all major foreign industrial enterprises and service enterprises have resumed work and production," he added.

On April 20, industrial conglomerate Honeywell registered wholly-owned subsidiary Huosheng Industrial Technology Co in Optics Valley, the first Fortune Global 500 enterprise to set up a subsidiary in the city this year.

As a key city in Central China, Wuhan is an important industrial base as well as a technology and research hub in the country, the company said.

Honeywell would like to enhance cooperation with Wuhan, promote innovative technologies, provide better coverage in Central and West China and further fulfill China's vast market needs, it said.

As fresh college graduates face greater challengers finding jobs this year due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the zone set up a recruitment program on April 9 with more than 140 high-tech companies offering more than 16,000 jobs to graduates, according to the management committee.

This year's recruitment drive will be carried out entirely online until May 20. Special online recruitment sessions will be held at the city's top universities, such as Wuhan University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law and China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), it said.

The posts mainly focus on optoelectronics, integrated circuits, biomedicines, the internet and other pillar and emerging fields, it said.

In 2017, Wuhan launched a plan for 1 million graduates to stay in the city for businesses and jobs over the following five years.

Optics Valley's current resident population has an average age of 31 and it has attracted more than 350,000 university students in Wuhan in the past three years, it added.