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Yangling, "Green Silicon Valley"
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Liu Jun and Duan Anping
THE district of Yangling, for generations a sleepy backwater in Shaanxi Province, rocketed to global attention last summer when the world's first cloned goat was born there. Unfortunately, the goat died 36 hours after it was born, but the event made many people realize that a lot of interesting things have been going on there.
Ninety kilomtres from Xi'an, capital of the Shaanxi Province in Western China, Yangling is the mythical birthplace of Chinese agriculture. Legend has it that one Hou Ji began to teach people in the area how to farm, starting a revolution that wound up creating Chinese civilization.
Yangling, however, slipped into the shadows following that long-ago event. But on July 29, 1997, the Chinese Government decided to establish the Yangling Demonstration Zone of Agricultural Hi-tech Industries, the only State-level agricultural high-tech model zone, in the hope of precipitating the modernization of China's agriculture by making full use of the district's advantages in location, technology and human resources.
In a bid to narrow the gap between the landlocked western region and the East, the Central Government kicked off the develop-the-west campaign last year. Yangling, emboldened by the project, resovled to make itself a sort of "Green Silicon Valley".
Top talent and technology
But why has Yangling jump to the top of the priority list of the Central Government in recent years? According to Mr Liang with the management committee of the Yangling Demonstration Zone of Agricultural Hi-tech Industries, the abundant brainpower and advanced technologies of the region are behind it. In this respect, the Northwest China Science and Technology University of Agriculture and Forestry play a starring role. A domestically famous comprehensive education and research centre in agriculture and forestry, it boasts 11 State- and provincial-level labs, five State-level research centres with a pool of more than 600 specialists, four academicians with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a large group of technicians and scientists in agriculture, forestry, irrigation and 70 other fields. In other words, little Yangling, which has a population of under 10,000 people, nevertheless has a surprisingly rich crop of human resources.
A successful "Silicon Valley" becomes a success by transforming its intellectual and technological advantages into tangible results which can yield profits. On this point no one in Yangling has any illusions. Consequently, the town has spared no effort in luring investment by bettering the investment environment.
Some 1.13 billion yuan has been used for infrastructure construction in the region. Priorities have been given to agriculture, forestry, engineering, agricultural chemistry, produce manufacturing, medical treatment, electronics and environmental protection as well. To buttress local firms, the zone issued regional bonds, set up innovation funds, adopted deducted loan policies and bought their stakes. These efforts have not only greatly improved high-tech developments in the areas, but also have attracted many investors from across the world and resulted in the signing of trade contracts involving large investments. By the end of October 2000, 250 enterprises had entered the zone with registered capital of 1.2 billion yuan, among which 11 go to foreign-owned firms and joint ventures. The zone is now ranked among the top 10 high-tech industrial parks in China.
Fruitful model achievements
Yangling is not the only State-level Demonstration Zone of Agricultural Hi-tech Industries in China for nothing.
The zone has cashed in on high technology to develop good-quality and highly-efficient agriculture, blazing a trail for China's agriculture.
An animal cloning base -- which produced the goat last year -- is expected to boost the industrialization of China's bio-tech discoveries.
Covering 40 hectares of land, the base will apply cloning technology to the breeding of cattle and sheep. The base focuses on embryo engineering, gene engineering and biopharmaceutical development. It also applies advanced technology to the processing of animal products. The base hopes to become a giant in the country's high-tech animal husbandry industry as well as a demonstration park for the country's agricultural bio-tech industry. Experts believe that the base will be of great importance to agricultural restructuring and to efforts to improve the environment.
What's more, a large number of demonstration parks focusing on irrigation, engineering and farming have been established, creating a model for the rest of the country. The Zhongfu company, one of the first firms to settle down in the zone, built a large-scale demonstration park of quality apple planting across the province with Yangling as the centre. At the same time, the zone also erected 11 demonstration parks in Shaanxi Province and 41 scientific demonstration labs in other provinces in West China, through which the zone reaped obvious social and economic results.
Embracing the future
In the era of the knowledge-based economy, managers of the zone came to realize that capital usage plays a vital role in speeding up the development of modern enterprises.
"The addition of promising enterprises is the secret weapon of our development," Yang Jun with the zone's economic development bureau said. "All governmental departments of the zone treasure firms here as if they were their own children. At the same time, talents are also crucial."
The Zhongfu company granted its 15 scientists shares valued at 150,000 to 350,000 yuan to award their irreplaceable contributions, taking the lead in the province, and the country, in nurturing knowledge.
Zhang Baotong, director of the Economy Research Institute of the Shaanxi Provincial Academy of Social Sciences is impressed by the zone's business model, saying it offers a shining example of combining production, study and research. Unlike awarding cars or houses, the company managed to convert talents into knowledge capital, the core of capital usage, he pointed out.
Fei Xiaotong, one of China's leading sociologists, said in an interview with People's Daily that Yangling is a very good example of a western area which is thirsty for high-tech. With the knowledge economy replacing the capital-based economy, science and technology are playing a dominant role in driving a country's economy.
Half of the wealth in the world which has been accumulated during the last three decades was created because of high technology. The major way out for underdeveloped regions lies in the wide use of high-tech to modernize industry and agriculture, he stressed.\
(Background) 1
Yangling firsts
-- The world's first cloned goat using an adult's body cells was born in the Northwest University of Science and Technology for Agriculture and Forestry in Yangling. The goat, called Yuanyuan, died of lung defects after 36 hours. a second cloned goat named Yangyang was born six days later. Prefessor Zhang Yong, head of the cloning scientiists team, earned the nickname "Father of China's Cloned Goat".
-- Yangling has the world's largest number of cloned goat embryos, with 45.
-- Yangling developed the No 1 castor-oil plant, a new variety of wheat. The plant is grown in nearly 100 million mus of land worldwide, becoming the world's most widely planted wheat.
-- The number and quality of new varieties of "Xiao Yan" series wheat in Yangling top China.
-- It has China's largest hall for artificial precipitation to study rain erosion.
-- The "Qinguan" (meaning the best in the province) apple and No 8212 and 8819 line hot are the mostly widely planted ones in the country.
-- The Insects Museum of the Northwest University of Agriculture is the only one of its kind in Asia and the biggest in China, collecting over 700,000 insect specimens.
(Background) 2
Yangling Demonstration Zone of Agricultural Hi-tech Industries
THE zone, occupying 21 square kilometres, includes a science park, an industrial park, an international co-operation park, a modern comprehensive agricultural park, a dozen testing and popularization bases and five multi-functional parks. Within the zone, teaching, research, production and trade are conducted. Over the past years, researchers made numerous breakthroughs in wheat research, non-irrigated farmland techniques, water-saving irrigation techniques and water and soil conservation as well as conversion of scientific achievements. The zone aims at developing improved varieties of crops, safe insecticides, biological medicines, chemical forestry products, and processed farm products. Efforts are made to strengthen international co-operation and the introduction, utilization and popularization of new agricultural techniques. More than 5,000 scientific achievements have brought a benefit of 200 billion yuan.
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