The East Lake High-tech Development Zone -- in Wuhan, capital city of Central China's Hubei province -- recently received another national-level recognition.

The zone, also known as Optics Valley of China, was included by the Ministry of Education in the second batch of bases for the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements and technology transfers from institutes of higher learning.

That's according to a Sept 21 announcement on Optics Valley's public WeChat account, marking the moment when the zone became the first of 169 national high-tech zones to be recognized as such a base.

Optics Valley attaches great importance to the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements.

It works closely with colleges and universities, promotes the commercialization of scientific research achievements in Wuhan-based colleges and universities and continually moves to improve its system to commercialize sci-tech innovations and achievements.

The zone earlier issued various measures to promote innovation, entrepreneurship, and the commercialization of sci-tech achievements. Officials said it has made a bold attempt in promoting the right to market sci-tech achievements and the right to profit, providing an important reference for the State to revise its relevant policies.

The zone has continuously increased its support for the four types of entities in the commercialization of sci-tech achievements.

Over the past two years, 124 universities and institutes, 93 industry-university-research cooperation projects and 422 technology transfer enterprises have been supported, with an amount of nearly 30 million yuan ($4.42 million).

At present, there are 12 national-level technology transfer demonstration institutions, 22 provincial technology transfer demonstration institutions and 19 municipal technology transfer demonstration institutions in the zone.

Last year, the zone handled a total of 120,000 technology contract confirmation and registration documents, up 40.9 percent year-on-year. The total transaction amount of these technology contracts was 33 billion yuan, an increase of 21.9 percent on the previous year. The per capita technology contract transaction value of the zone ranked first among all the national high-tech zones.

Currently, there are 308 research and development platforms at or above the provincial level -- with 35 at the national level -- for companies in the zone.

In addition, the zone has also established 11 industrial and technological research institutes with universities and leading companies.

At present, the number of incubators in the zone has reached 61, the number of maker spaces has reached 101 and more than 500 entrepreneurship service organizations are currently resident in Optics Valley.

The zone has held a number of sci-tech achievements commercialization cooperation activities with Wuhan-based universities and the Wuhan Branch of Chinese Academy of Sciences, to promote the commercialization of the latest and most advanced sci-tech achievements there. Moreover, it has continued to hold various innovation and entrepreneurship activities.

In 2018, Hubei province, Wuhan city and Optics Valley set up a number of funds for the commercialization of sci-tech achievements and invested in 20 projects.