In recent years, China's science and technology industrial parks have incubated a large number of competent high-tech companies and contributed a lot to the country 's economic development, according to Tang Fengquan, an official from the Ministry of Science and Technology in charge of the national high-tech programs and science parks.

Tang was speaking at the fifth meeting of APEC Science and Technology Industrial Parks Network, part of the ongoing Second APEC Investment Mart in Yantai, Shandong Province.

The official said that China has so far had 53 state-level high- tech parks, which are home to over 20,000 companies, including many industrial leaders.

In 2000, these science parks turned out 920.9 billion yuan in total sales, 794.2 billion yuan in industrial output, 46 billion yuan in revenue and 18.6 billion U.S. dollars in exports, increasing respectively by 107 times, 113 times, 119 times and 104 times of the figures in 1991. Last year, they contributed to 24 percent of the added value of the country's industrial sector.

China's high-tech parks have become production bases for electronic and information products, new material, new pharmaceutical and bioengineering products. A majority of the country's high-tech products are manufactured by factories in these science parks.

Currently, China has almost 300 incubators of high-tech companies, with quite a number of them located in these state- level science parks. Statistics from 110 incubators find that they have helped create 5,293 high-tech firms, with employees totaling 164,000.

(Xinhua 06/13/2001)