The East Lake New Technology Entrepreneur Center. [Photo provided to chinaopticsvalley.com]

Editor's Notes: Yan Zhenjun is the executive dean of the Capital Institute of Science and Technology Development Strategy. According to him, China's business incubation industry is entering a new era, with a new round of scientific revolution and industrial transformation on its way. Technological innovation has the potential to reshape the global landscape and penetrate into every aspect of human life. This story is based on an article Yan wrote about China's business incubators.

June 8 marked the 35th anniversary of China's first business incubator – the East Lake New Technology Entrepreneur Center.

Since the 1970s, new technologies such as information technology, new energy, biology, and new materials have emerged and thrived in China. As a result, incubators have become a strategic tool for a region to develop high-tech industries and raise overall competence.

Hubei Youth Pioneer Park – an incubator based in the East Lake High-tech Development Zone. [Photo/Optics Valley of China]

The concept of an incubator was put forward in China for the first time in 1984, and Wuhan was among the first cities to act on it. At the time,Yan Zhenjun was the director of the Bureau of International Cooperation of the National Natural Science Foundation of China. He offered generous support for the establishment of the East Lake New Technology Entrepreneur Center in 1987.

In the beginning, the new center only had five workers, who were responsible for things such as putting up advertisements encouraging entrepreneurs to start businesses in the center.

Entrepreneurs could just register their operations in the center and were eligible to use a 100,000-yuan ($14,940) special venture capital fund allocated by the government.

China's incubation industry was born that year. Reform and opening-up has provided opportunities for incubators, which in turn have stimulated social and economic development by incubating thousands of listed companies.

China's incubators offer strong support for the cultivation of high-tech enterprises and are closely connected with scientific zones. The government plays an indispensible role in providing policy incentives, financial support, systematic guarantees and resource relocation for incubators.

The Wuhan Industrial Institute for Optoelectronics – an incubator based in the East Lake High-tech Development Zone. [Photo/Optics Valley of China]