Ji Shiying, president of the Beijing Natural Science Institute, said the "software" should include, above all, a financial "platform," allowing small and medium high-tech enterprises -- the most common residents of Zhongguancun -- to more easily get the development funds they badly need.

Therefore, Ji, also a member of the Beijing Municipal People's Political Consultative Conference, applauded the municipal government's idea of establishing the Zhongguancun Technology and Property Rights Exchange.

"The exchange will help introduce more funds into local high-tech enterprises, while facilitating their restructuring," he said.

"As funds are actually a major bottleneck in the development of high-tech industry in Beijing, solving the problem will give a really big boost to the local economy."

Widely known as the "first villager of Zhongguancun" for establishing the first private enterprise in the area in 1980, Ji is hopeful of seeing the exchange start up this year.

The high-tech industry in Beijing has shifted from its early stage of rapid growth to a new stage of adjustment, and the municipal government should cultivate the development potential of the industry, noted to Zhang Xing, an official with the municipal science and technology committee.

Therefore, the municipal government has designed a set of policy incentives, which has as priorities the improvement of the legal environment and the development of products with intellectual property rights, in addition to the construction of the exchange, Zhang said.

"All of these efforts will help ensure the future prosperity of Zhongguancun as well, now that it is a major component of the local high-tech industry," he said.

But Ji believes an innovative credit system might help further. He suggests local banks allow high-tech enterprises to mortgage their intellectual property rights to secure loans.

"As one of the most creative areas in China, Zhongguancun boasts probably more intellectual property rights than any other region in China," said Ji. "The rights would be profitable, if there is money to allow the owners of the rights to take them from labs into factories."

Municipal government statistics indicate Zhongguancun has fulfilled its original goals, set three years ago. Its revenue for the year 2002 is about one-sixth of the total earned by the country's 53 high and new-tech parks, reporting an added value of 53.7 billion yuan (US$6.5 billion), 1.4 times that of three years ago.

High-tech industry has become a major growth factor for the Beijing economy, contributing 28.9 percent of the city's industrial added value last year, 0.6 percent lower than that for year 2001.

(China Daily January 20, 2003)