The Kunming National Hi-Tech Industries Development Zone has relied on scientific innovation for 10 major industrial projects to improve the economy and for leapfrog social and economic development, according to participants at a zone economic work conference for 2014.

The projects involve a local pharmaceutical industrial park, a national germanium base, a national new energy demonstration park, and a China-ASEAN bonded industrial park. The hi-tech zone will look for ways to develop its modern services industry, improve innovation, build a talent zone, and focus on new materials and equipment manufacturing and biomedicines.

In 2013, the zone ranked 27th among the nation’s hi-tech zones and had 140.3 billion yuan($22.45 billion) in revenues, up 16 percent year-on-year. Industrial added value output grew 18 percent, while high-tech industrial added value output was up 20 percent, fixed investment was up 26 percent, and industrial fixed investment, 30.8 percent. It added 2.04 billion yuan to the budget, while new materials and equipment manufacturing contributed 53 percent to the zone revenues, and bio-medicine contributed 25 percent. The zone’s industrial cluster is getting specialized and more distinct, with Dong Baotong, the zone’s management head and Party secretary, saying they will take the lead in innovation-powered development improve the zone’s economy.