The 2012 Zhongguancun Index, a yearly study on the strength of business and innovation at the namesake science park in west Beijing, was released on Sept 13.

It was the first time that the index has been unveiled.

The report said enterprises are growing quickly in the area, with 453 firms in the zone doubling their revenues last year at the same time more than 4,200 new companies were set up in the park.

By the end of 2011, Zhongguancun had 1,648 companies that reported revenues surpassing 100 million yuan, the index said.

Total revenues from companies in the park reached 1.96 trillion yuan in 2011, the third consecutive year of growth surpassing 20 percent, it said.

For the first time, the modern services sector accounted for the majority of total revenue. The electronic information, advanced manufacturing, new energy and new materials sectors also grew rapidly.

The top 300 companies in Zhongguancun by annual revenue generated more than 60 percent of the high-tech park's total income and about 80 percent of its export revenue.

Last year enterprises in the area signed more than 30,000 contracts on technology with a combined transaction value of 132 billion yuan, more than a quarter of the nation's total, according to the report.

Companies in the park also accelerated their growth overseas with foreign direct investment totaling 16.2 billion yuan, up 280 percent over a year earlier.

Human resources have long been a strong point at Zhongguancun, also home to China's most prestigious universities. Last year 1.4 million people worked in Zhongguancun, half of them with a bachelor's degree or above.

By May this year, 490 professionals from overseas selected in a recruitment program begun by the central government in 2008 were working in Zhongguancun, more than a fifth of the national total.

Zhang Jing'an, director-general of the Association of China's High-tech Industrial Development Zones, said "the formulation and publication of the Zhongguancun Index marks a milestone in the development of the area".

"The Index offers an important analytical foundation for the government to guide the development of the park and opens a new window for society to learn about the progress at Zhongguancun," he added.

Yang Jianhua, deputy director of the park's administrative committee, said the index offers a new tool for the administrators to examine the development of the park and to more easily identify problems, resulting in better and faster growth.

The 2012 index was formulated and released jointly by Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, Zhongguancun Innovation and Development Institute and Beijing Fangdi Economic Development Institute.

The ideas was partly based on the Silicon Valley Index, an annual publication that uses various indicators to measure the economic and community health of America's technology stronghold.

Zhang Zhihong, deputy director of the high-tech industry development center of the Ministry of Science and Technology, emphasized that the report is objective, as it was designed and analyzed by independent third-party intellectual organizations.

hantianyang@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 09/14/2012 page24)