Optics Valley Index 2020 was published on Dec 25, revealing the strong development trends in the East Lake High-tech Development Zone -- also known as Optics Valley of China -- located in Wuhan, capital city of Central China's Hubei province.

The index is compiled by the zone and the Institutes of Science and Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Optics Valley index was compiled from 2017, starting with first-level indicators for innovation, economy, industry, openness and the environment, as well as 43 specific indicators -- to continuously follow up and show the dynamics of the zone's development.

Taking 2015 as the starting period with a base index of 100, the index had reached 261 by 2019.

Examining the index changes, the index has maintained a rapid and smooth growth, with an average annual increase of 27.1 percent.

The innovation-driven sub-index has performed the best, with an average annual increase of 29.4 percent, while the economic high-quality sub-index ranked second, with an average annual increase of 28.4 percent.

The index findings showed that in 2019, the added value of the zone's high technology industry reached 117.67 billion yuan ($17.99 billion), accounting for 62.7 percent of its GDP, much higher than the national average of 11.6 percent.

In 2019, Optics Valley had the highest total economic volume and growth rate in the city of Wuhan, with a total GDP valued at 187.68 billion yuan, accounting for 11.6 percent of the city's total.

In addition, the percentage of undergraduates and above educated practitioners in the zone reached 64.5 percent in 2019.

Among its resident population, 51.4 percent were aged 20-44 years, higher than that in Silicon Valley by 13 percentage points. The average annual salary was 219,000 yuan, with an annual house affordability ratio of 15.3, up by 24.4 percent from the previous year and ranking it first among the 10 world-class high-tech parks in China.