Cai Yingbo
SHENZHEN high-tech companies have added glamour to the Beijing Olympic Games by providing a range of high-tech products and services, Liu Yingli, deputy director and secretary-general of the organizing committee of the China Hi-tech Fair said at a press conference in Beijing on Friday.
Liu said more than 20 high-tech companies provided the Beijing Olympic Games with a wide range of technology including the huge light-emitting diode (LED) screen laid in the center of the Bird’s Nest at the opening ceremony, the fixed-line and wireless services, furniture in guest houses, security equipment for the Olympic Village and the extraordinary lighting effects of the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube.
“A Shenzhen company offered ear phones for 15,000 performers at the opening ceremony after the Shenzhen mayor received an urgent call from Beijing,” said Liu.
Liu said the high-tech industry had become the foremost pillar industry in the city. Shenzhen achieved a GDP of 676.5 billion yuan (US$99.4 billion) last year, and per capita GDP reached US$10,628, the highest on the mainland. The high-tech industry produced 219.6 billion yuan in added value last year, accounting for nearly one-third of the city’s GDP, according to Liu.
In addition, Shenzhen would strengthen cooperation with neighboring Hong Kong to promote innovation in the booming high-tech sector, Liu told the conference.
He said the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Innovation Circle agreement signed in May 2007 had activated technical and innovative cooperation between the two cities.
The governments provided special subsidies to promote cooperation between high-tech companies in Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Apart from financial subsidies, the governments also set up a Web site to promote the sharing of equipment, laboratories and professors at technological institutes in the two cites in 2007.
“The innovation cooperation between Shenzhen and Hong Kong will also highlight the coming China Hi-Tech Fair to be held from Oct.12 to 17,” said Liu Jin, deputy director of the Shenzhen Bureau of Science, Technology and Information.
Liu said the governments of the two cities planned to build a research center in Hong Kong and a manufacturing facility in Shenzhen for amorphous silicon thin film to support the rapidly growing photovoltaic solar energy industry.