A workshop of Xiamen Hanin, a printer supplier in the Xiamen Torch Development Zone for High Technology Industries. CHINA DAILY

A group of manufacturers in the Xiamen Torch Development Zone for High Technology Industries have climbed to the forefront of their sectors in recent years through constant innovation.

Their achievement is the result of the zone's focus on industrial development, cultivation of specialized fields and its system to support enterprises at different levels. Data show that since its establishment in 1990, the zone in Xiamen city, Fujian province, has fostered 10 important "manufacturing individual champion enterprises".

Specializing

Manufacturing individual champion enterprises represent the top level in specialized fields. Many such enterprises in the zone were established more than 10 years ago, focusing on their specific fields and innovating to advance core technologies, and positioning themselves at critical parts of the industry and supply chains.

Advanced 3D printing products launched by Xiamen Hanin drew attention at the TCT Asia 2024 — a leading design-to-manufacturing event focused on 3D printing, engineering and product development — held in Shanghai in May.

Lin Yang, the company's product director, said: "It is the result of years of accumulation in the 3D printing field. As early as 2017, we partnered with Xiamen University Tan Kah Kee College to establish a laboratory for technological research in advance."

The company has invested substantial funds in research and development over many years, gradually promoting the commercialization of research results, Lin added.

In 2021, the company was recognized as a national-level manufacturing individual champion enterprise for its thermal printers. Today, Xiamen Hanin has become a leading global manufacturer of printing equipment, with products exported to more than 80 countries and regions.

The Xiamen Torch Hi-tech Zone has long been committed to building a modern industrial system, enhancing the industry and innovation chain, promoting the upgrading and coordination of the panel display and software industry chains, and also expediting the development of new quality productive forces.

Three advanced production lines of new-type display screens entered trial production and mass production in the zone in June. Peng Jianfeng, vice-chairman of China Video Industry Association, said: "The Xiamen Torch Hi-tech Zone now covers all mainstream types of new display production lines."

It combines investment attraction with incubation and cultivation to build a new-type display industry ecosystem and plays an important role in promoting the growth of Xiamen's display industry to the value chain's high level, Peng said.

Encouraging R&D

At the workshop of Xiamen Zeesan Biotech in the zone, there are neatly arranged test kits for various tuberculosis strains. Due to its diagnostic reagents and instruments, the company is among the latest batch of national-level manufacturing individual champion enterprises announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

It was selected as a national-level postdoctoral research station in May, indicating that the company is qualified to recruit and train postdoctoral researchers. Li Qingge, chairman of the company, said that since its establishment in 2010, the company has adhered to a technology-oriented approach, focused on the field of molecular diagnostics and maintained close ties with the School of Life Sciences at Xiamen University.

It continuously enhanced innovation capabilities and aims to provide high-quality molecular diagnostic reagents and instruments.

Li said that the biopharmaceutical industry has a long R&D cycle. The Xiamen Torch Hi-tech Zone encourages companies to focus on R&D, providing policy support and financial subsidies to companies that increase R&D input and capabilities.

This allows the technology team to focus on innovation and transform research results into products, Li said, adding that over the past 20-plus years, technologists have developed multiple molecular diagnostic products, involving tuberculosis screening and drug resistance testing, genetic disease screening, blood and tumor screening and diagnosis, HPV types and drug genome testing.

The Xiamen Torch Hi-tech Zone emphasizes basic research and original innovation, and with its help, scientific and technological fruits have sprung up. Based on a joint laboratory, SmartCmeta Materials Technologies in the zone made a new breakthrough in the field of graphene applications and launched related air purification products in March.

Wang Yan, general manager of the company, said that with the zone as a matchmaker, the company established a joint laboratory with the College of Physical Science and Technology at Xiamen University, focusing on the R&D of graphene oxide and downstream products. Their collaborative innovation has accelerated the application and industrialization of scientific achievements, Wang said.

The Xiamen Torch Hi-tech Zone released a series of measures to support the innovation and high-quality development of scientific and technological companies in May. It can provide a company with subsidies of up to 1 million yuan ($140,300) for industry-academia-research cooperation that meets certain requirements.

Based on the principle of "developing high technology and achieving industrialization", the zone has attracted more than 29,000 enterprises. Every year, it selects a group of enterprises that boast core technologies in specialized fields and good growth potential. The zone then takes measures such as classification guidance and policy support to help them enter a higher level.

Lin said that in the early days of Xiamen Hanin's establishment, the zone not only provided crucial R&D funding support for the company but helped it overcome technological barriers.

The zone also offered efficient services and resource matching platforms and coordinated upstream and downstream collaborative innovation to help companies reduce operating costs, shorten R&D cycles and accelerate the application of technologies.

Since the beginning of this year, the zone has launched measures that focus on building shared platforms, tax incentives and financial services, simplifying the policy implementation to accelerate the growth of enterprises.

It plans to carry out support policies for technology companies at different stages of development, improve the cultivation of these enterprises and boost enterprise innovation and development.

Xiamen Zeesan Biotech in the zone has made achievements in molecular diagnostic technology of tuberculosis in recent years. CHINA DAILY

Guo Wei and Liu Qing contributed to this story.