The establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (SEZ) has been a great innovative move to advance China's modernization and the SEZ continues to prove its relevance with innovation-driven development in the new era.
Tuesday marks the 45th anniversary of the Shenzhen SEZ. A once-sleepy fishing village, Shenzhen became a testing ground for China's reform and opening-up when it was designated as one of the country's first special economic zones in 1980.
Over the past decades, Shenzhen has rapidly emerged as a leading hub for innovation and technology. It is now again at the forefront of China's transformation to high-quality and innovation-driven development, playing a trailblazing role in the country's deepened reform and higher-level opening-up.
Technology professionals such as Zhang Ke are advancing the use of artificial intelligence in critical fields. He leads the AI for Science department at BYD, China's world-leading new energy vehicle manufacturer, where his team has pioneered the integration of AI into lithium battery research and development.
"In the fields of material research and lithium batteries, we will accelerate this research by a tremendous amount, and this new approach that combines robotics and AI algorithms will really change the way that we do research and the way that we live," Zhang told China Global Television Network (CGTN).
After earning a Ph.D. overseas, Zhang chose to settle in Shenzhen. He said that government support and the city's open environment have greatly helped him do research here over the years. "It embraces openness. The government here really provided a fairly easy policy environment for this to happen and to integrate people from different countries and from different fields," he said.
According to the Capital Institute of Science and Technology Development Strategy, Shenzhen ranks second nationwide for science and technology innovation among 288 cities across China.
Shenzhen's success lies in a unique combination of a supportive government and a market environment that embraces inclusiveness and openness and promotes global collaboration, according to Cao Zhongxiong, assistant president of the China Development Institute.
"Traditionally, our innovation followed a path from basic science to technological and industrial innovation. In Shenzhen, however, innovation is first driven by industries and enterprises, which then continuously extends and feeds back into basic research, fostering the development of technological innovation. I can clearly see an efficient, organic interaction between the market and the government, where resources within the city can undergo a highly effective 'chemical reaction'," said Cao.
Shenzhen SEZ continues spearheading China's reform, opening-up 45 years on
