The landmark of the Optics Valley of China, in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province. [Photo/WeChat account of Optics Valley of China]

Over the first half of 2023, Wuhan has been striving to become a nationally influential sci-tech innovation center, with a batch of crucial core technologies and innovation results emerging. Many of these achievements were developed in the East Lake High-tech Development Zone (also known as Optics Valley of China, or OVC), especially in the fields of optoelectronics, laser, and biomedicine.

The OVC Lab has successfully developed an IC lithography mechanical design system. The Wuhan Supercomputing Center, collaborating with the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, topped the Graph 500 list in Single-Source Shortest Path.

In June, the Ministry of Science and Technology approved the construction of the new generation of national artificial intelligence (AI) public computing power development and innovation center in the Wuhan AI Computing Center.

Humanwell Healthcare Group Co and Waterstone Pharmaceuticals (Wuhan) Co, two OVC-based enterprises, have made the recently released 2023 China pharmaceutical R&D top 100 list.

So far, there are 34 key State-level labs and two national technological innovation centers. During the first six months of this year, Wuhan's total technology contract volume stood at 100.41 billion yuan ($14.06 billion), up 35.36 percent year-on-year.

In addition, the city has been home to 650 AI companies, whose core industrial scale reaches 33.4 billion yuan. Wuhan also takes the fifth position in the 2022 innovative capacity assessment for national innovation-based cities.