context: 'Made in China 2025' calls for launching 15 national manufacturing innovation centres by 2020. As this is only the third centre established in as many years, the initiative is facing a tight deadline for the remaining 12.
A National Information and Optoelectronics Innovation Centre was launched in Wuhan Donghu National Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone (HIDZ) 26 April 2018, reports The Paper. The centre combines R&D, incubation and accelerated commercialisation, and its leaders aim for it to be globally competitive in three to five years. The centre will focus on
- next-generation IT
- optical interconnections
- 5G
- high-end new materials
- integrated circuits (IC)
The centre will bring together firms, research institutes and start-up incubators, explains Mao Hao 毛浩, its manager. It adopted a market-oriented joint-stock model, with Accelink Technologies, Fiberhome Telecom Tech and Hengtong as the main shareholders.
Building manufacturing innovation centres is the first of five key projects laid out in 'Made in China 2025 manufacturing upgrading plan', together with
- AI-based smart manufacturing
- basic materials and core components manufacturing
- green manufacturing
- advanced equipment manufacturing.
Ministry of Industry and IT's 'Guidelines for building national manufacturing innovation centres (2016-20)' aims to establish 15 centres by 2020. Each targeted industry or sector will have one national innovation centre, harnessing
- regional strengths
- comparative advantages
- industrial positioning
- specialisation
Wuhan is a leader in optoelectronics and chips manufacturing, says the report. Changjiang Daily writes that
- Donghu HIDZ, which is also known as the Optics Valley, houses 60 percent of China's optoelectronic resources
- Wuhan's above-scale enterprises in the electronic information industry generated C¥205 bn output value in 2017, up 15.2 percent y-o-y
- Donghu HIDZ hosts 1,848 sci-tech enterprises and 600 incubators
- 5,013 patent applications were submitted in 2017, up 22.9 percent y-o-y
The centre is the third MIIT-approved national-level manufacturing innovation centre, following
- National Power Battery Innovation Centre, launched June 2016 in Beijing
- National Additive Manufacturing (3D printing) Innovation Centre, launched January 2017 in Xi'an