High and New Technologies, Advanced Manufacturing & Independent Innovation
The hi-tech industry and advanced manufacturing are the pillar industries of Shenzhen.
Since the beginning of the 1990's, Shenzhen has grasped strategic opportunities to develop the hi-tech industry and has promoted the leap of independent innovation in respect of both quality and quantity. In 2005, the output value of hi-tech products of Shenzhen Municipality reached RMB 490 billion, among which that of hi-tech products with proprietary intellectual property accounted for 58%; patent applications of Shenzhen Municipality exceeded 20,000, ranking third among large and medium cities of China, among which invention patent applications exceeded 8,000, accounting for 40% of all of such applications, ranking highest in the country. To date, overall investment in R&D has reached RMB 12.5 billion in Shenzhen, and this proportion is about three times higher than the average level throughout China.
Shenzhen has become one of the most successful cities in China to rely on independent innovation in order to transform economic growth patterns and the adjustment of the economic structure. The development of Shenzhen's economy has experienced a forward progression from "Processed in Shenzhen" and "Made in Shenzhen" to "Created in Shenzhen". A batch of enterprise groups with international competitive edges have come into being gradually through the enhancement of independent corporate innovative abilities, i.e. hi-tech industry organizations such as communication industry groups, computer industry groups, IC industry groups, software industry groups, etc. These industries have had the fastest growth speed and the strongest competitive edge in Shenzhen, and their main products, such as computer software & hardware, SPC exchanges, and access network equipment take a large share of the domestic market.
In order to propel hi-tech economic cooperation between China and other countries of the world, the China Hi-Tech Fair was started in 1999 to be held in Shenzhen every October. It has become the number one fair for high and new technologies in China, and Shenzhen has become a manufacturing, R&D and trading hub for high and new technologies products in China.
Shenzhen is the only city in China that has marine, terrestrial and aerial ports. Currently, it has 12 ports at large. In 2005, traveller passage reached 156 million person-times, while vehicle passage amounted to 14.84 million vehicle-times.
Shenzhen has sea port zones in both the east and the west areas, with 53 berths over 10,000 tonnage and 145 regular international container liner courses, forming an international container liner network with Shenzhen Port as the hinge to service major ports in the top 12 navigation zones of the world.
In 2005, Shenzhen Port became the fourth largest port in the world, and its cargo throughput exceeded 153 million tons and container throughput reached 16.1968 TEUs.
Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport is the fourth largest airport in China. Currently, it has 95 domestic flight routes and 18 international flight routes. In 2005, the passenger throughput of Shenzhen Airport reached 15.75 million person-times, and its goods and post throughput reached 466,000 tons, which boosted Shenzhen Airport to the top 50 among global goods transportation enterprises.
Shenzhen has a well-designed and well-built highway, expressway and railway network, with 1,800km of highway and 200km of expressway, with a highway density of 0.75km/km2. The five airports in Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Macao and Zhuhai are all within 90 minutes driving distance. Shenzhen is the joint point of the Beijing-Guangzhou, Beijing-Kowloon and Guangzhou-Kowloon Railways. Shenzhen's expressway connects Shenzhen with Hong Kong and other major cities of the Pearl River Delta.
Shenzhen Metro Phase 1 was launched at the end of 2004. Shenzhen Metro Line 4 is under construction through cooperation between Shenzhen and Hong Kong, and will be connected to the Hong Kong MTR Network in 2008. The Shenzhen-HK western channel project will also be launched in July 2006.
Since the end of 2005, Shenzhen Metro Line 3 has been under construction, along with the urban rail transit system.Industries shenzhen