The internationalization index of the Hefei National High-tech Industry Development Zone in Hefei, East China's Anhui province, reached 109.15, 9.15 points higher than in 2017, a report said on July 22.

It is the first internationalization index for a development zone in China.

The index showed that the zone is seeing an upward trend in its international development and is ready to embrace China's new dual circulation economic development model, which relies on domestic circulation to drive international circulation and promotes more comprehensive opening-up.

The index is based on a digital model for evaluating the international development of the national high-tech zones and a survey of nearly 1,000 enterprises.

It is a result of cooperation between the zone and the Institutes of Science and Development of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a national think tank, after seven months of research.