Ningbo High-tech Zone was established in 1999 and upgraded to a national high-tech zone in 2007. In 2013, the Ningbo Municipal Party Committee and Government decided to build a new material science and technology city based on a high-tech zone, with a total planned core area of 55 square kilometers. On February 1, 2018, the construction of Ningbo High-tech Zone as a national independent innovation demonstration zone was approved by the State Council.
The High-tech Zone includes 4 subdistricts: Meixu, Guisi, Xinming and Juxian. Meixu is known as the earliest commercial port in East Yinzhou. The market trade of Dongyi Street has started as early as in the Southern Song Dynasty. Over the years, it is gradually known as a commodity trade market in the country. By the early years of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, it has become one of the main fairs in Dongxiang, Ningbo.
The High-tech Zone boasts superior geographical location and convenient transportation network, adjacent to Ningbo Port in the east, Hangzhou-Ningbo Expressway in the south, Ningbo downtown in the west, and Hangzhou Bay Sea-crossing Bridge in the north. It is an important carrier for Ningbo to build an innovative city and a scientific and technological innovation base in the south wing of the Yangtze River Delta.
In 2022, the gross regional product of Ningbo High-tech Zone reached ¥37.97 billion, up 5.3% year on year; The total fiscal revenue amounted to 8.34 billion yuan, up 3.7% year on year, including ¥4.64 billion general public budget revenue, up 4.1% in the same caliber; The import and export of foreign trade increased by 8.8% year on year, of which the export increased by 13.7% year on year. The added value of industries above the designated size reached ¥10.86 billion, up 17.4% year on year. The added value of high-tech industries and strategic emerging industries accounted for 95.9% and 85.1% of the added value of industries above the designated size, respectively. The average industrial added value per mu and the proportion of R&D investment continued to rank first in the city. The R&D investment in the whole region exceeded ¥3 billion yuan, accounting for more than 8% of GDP; 162 enterprises were newly identified as high-tech enterprises; the estimated technology transaction volume reached ¥3.3 billion; The number of high-value invention patents per 10000 people exceeded 90, ranking first in the city.
Ningbo High-tech Zone is a scientific and technological innovation platform designed as the innovation engine for the economic development of Ningbo and its core area serves as the incubator of the whole city, providing strong scientific and technological support for the development of emerging industries in Ningbo. The R&D expenditure of the whole region accounts for 7.1% of GDP; The number of invention patents per 10000 people exceed 200; It has introduced and gathered a number of key research and development institutions, including the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology & Engineering of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the China North Materials Science and Engineering Institute, the Ningbo Joint Research Institute of New Materials, the Ningbo Institute of Northwestern Polytechnic University, and the Ningbo Institute of Artificial Intelligence of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It has 8 national-level incubators and enterprise accelerators, and 11 national-level maker spaces. The density of high-end talents ranks first in the city, with a total of 17 academicians at home and abroad, 98 national key talents, and 422 provincial and municipal key talents (teams). At present, the high-tech zone has established 10 sub parks throughout the city.
