Shenzhen is the only city government to win an award at the 2006 Guangdong Awards for Science and Technologies, said the newspaper.
Guangdong Party chief Zhang Dejiang and Governor Huang Huahua presented the 500,000-yuan (US$64,935) award to Shenzhen Mayor Xu Zongheng at an award ceremony held at Pearl Island Hotel in Guangzhou on Monday.
“Regional scientific innovation system,” which refers to a set of government policies aimed at offering incentives for technological advancement, was one of the only two projects to win the 50,000-yuan top awards Monday. The other award went to a series of innovations on Guangdong expressways.
A total of 288 projects won the 2006 Guangdong Awards for Science and Technologies, including 39 projects from Shenzhen, according to the newspaper.
Shenzhen’s strategy of independent innovation started in 1993, when the government decided to develop the high-tech industry and to reduce its reliance on trade and processing. In 2004, it introduced a complete package of policies on building a regional scientific innovation system. In 2006, it officially announced independent innovation as its development strategy.
In 2006, Shenzhen’s high-tech industry generated 630.64 billion yuan, higher than any other major city in China, statistics show.
In the past decade, the high-tech industry has become the dominant industry in the city, with domestic companies playing increasingly more important roles in innovation together with more energy-efficiency.
In 2006, the GDP of Shenzhen reached 581.36 billion yuan, but the consumption of energy, power and water for achieving each 10,000 yuan of GDP was much lower than the national average. (Deng Hanneng, Shenzhen Daily)