The Zhejiang provincial government announced new plans to further opening-up and to strengthen the manufacturing industry along with scientific and technological innovation at a conference on targeted global cooperation in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, on May 9.

To leverage the power of globalization for the development of the local economy is no longer something new to Zhejiang. Zhejiang industries have been speeding up their exploration into the global market and striving to bolster cooperation with foreign partners over the past few years.

An official said at the conference that by 2018, Fortune Global 500 companies had invested in 614 projects in Zhejiang with total investment of $37.65 billion.

Agreements on a total of 15 projects from emerging industries, including high-end equipment, new-energy vehicles and biotechnology, were signed at the conference, and some technological tasks around digital economy and life sciences were assigned to the province's top research institutes such as Zhejiang University and Westlake University.

Goals for targeted international cooperation in industry and information technology were released, stating that by 2022, a group of world-leading manufacturing industrial clusters will be formed in Zhejiang, along with more than 300 projects each worth more than 500 million yuan ($72.67 million). In the next four years, Zhejiang aims to see 400 global mergers and acquisitions and the construction of 15 demonstration platforms for targeted international cooperation.

At the same time, the East China province also announced that by 2022, it will have built a targeted and global-oriented opening-up and innovation system, established strategic partnerships with over 10 countries with good performance in innovative work, and launched 100 overseas incubators, 100 cooperation parks and bases, and 100 key platforms for talent introduction.