China Speech Valley is located in Hefei, Anhui province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

China Speech Valley is the country's first artificial intelligence (AI)-oriented industrial park at the national level and a front-runner in the intelligent speech sector.

The facility is located in the Hefei National High-tech Industry Development Zone -- "Anhui's Silicon Valley" -- in Hefei, capital of East China's Anhui province.

More than 1,400 companies are operating in the facility. Some big names among them include publicly-traded iFlytek, one of China's leading AI and intelligent speech companies, Huami Corp, a United States-listed maker of smart wearables, MiMouse, a technology startup dedicated to speech recognition, and Infervision, a company that develops medical-related AI technology.

The intelligent speech industrial cluster in China Speech Valley has been selected as one of the country's advanced manufacturing industrial clusters. The construction of the national intelligent speech innovation center has been approved, and the facility has been designated as a national special service export base in the field of language services.

In a bid to become a world-class industrial landmark, China Speech Valley is set to boost the development of both AI technology and information technology. It aims to produce a total output value of 500 billion yuan ($78.74 billion) during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25).

The number of companies now based in China Speech Valley has topped 2,200, with their annual revenue exceeding 200 billion yuan ($27.9 billion) in 2023.

According to a notice issued by the provincial government last year, from 2021 to 2025, a total of 800 million yuan will be allocated annually to support the development of AI, intelligent speech, and information technology in the China Speech Valley.

China Speech Valley boasts a thriving intelligent speech industry. [Photo/WeChat ID: hefeigaoxinfabu]

China Speech Valley is home to more than 1,400 companies. [Photo/WeChat ID: hefeigaoxinfabu]