A captivating night view of Optics Valley of China, with its signature calla lily-shaped building in the center. [Photo/Optics Valley of China]

Statistics indicate that by Dec 23, the East Lake High-tech Development Zone (also known as Optics Valley of China, or OVC) registered 28,800 new market entities this year, a year-on-year increase of 15.18 percent. The valley is currently home to 160,200 market entities and 112,000 enterprises.

Over the past three quarters of 2021, double-digit growth was achieved in OVC's regional GDP. From January to November, the added value of industries above a designated size surged 28.9 percent, the highest growth rate in Wuhan.

Sales revenues of OVC-based companies, including Motorola (Wuhan) Mobility Technologies Communication Co, FiberHome Telecommunication Technologies Co, and TCL China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co, had all hit 10 billion yuan ($1.57 billion) by the end of November.

On Dec 22, Wuhan KOTEI Information Technology Co was successfully listed on the ChiNext market of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, becoming the valley's 53rd company to go public. Currently, about 60 percent of listed firms are based in OVC.

The 2020 Report on the Market Competitiveness of National High-tech Development Zones ranks the Optics Valley of China fourth, only second to Beijing Zhongguancun High-tech Development Zone, Shenzhen High-tech Industrial Development Zone, and Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone.

Since the beginning of this year, many innovation-oriented small and medium-sized enterprises have sprung up, and over 4,000 firms with registered capital ranging from 5 million yuan to 100 million, as well as 14,700 firms with registered capital below 5 million yuan have emerged in OVC.

10 years ago, the valley's government began to cultivate gazelle enterprises; now, the number of such enterprises has surged from the original 30 to 502, with 14 of them having been listed and six of them becoming OVC's unicorns.