Zhejiang will promote the upgrading of special towns around the province and build a "2.0 version" of such towns, according to a press conference held on April 24 in Hangzhou.

"2.0 versions" refer to upgraded special towns, which will develop based on the towns' respective strengths, said a senior official from the provincial development and reform commission.

He noted that special towns are high-performance industrial platforms and that the 2.0 versions should work toward forming strong industrial foundations and modern industrial chains.

Special industries are still the focus of the 2.0 versions, and investment into these industries as well as their output value must make up at least 70 percent of the town’s total industrial output.

The official said that in order to develop more special industries, these special towns must promote their strongest industries and form industrial chains to make up for industrial weakness.

He also noted that innovation is key to building high-end special industrial towns and that by 2022, all provincial-level special towns in Zhejiang will house at least one innovation platform involving all talent at the provincial-level or above.

The 2.0 versions also require the establishment of an industrial ecosystem that integrates companies, government authorities, and various industrial platforms.

Zhejiang province has built 194 special industrial towns since it first began building them in 2015.

Yunqi town, Hangzhou is the first special towns in Zhejiang. Its economy centers on the intelligent hardware industry, specifically cloud computing and big data. [Photo/WeChat account: hzfbwx]