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| Covering 2,000 square meters, the market offers services including exhibitions, tech trading and consulting |
Home to the famed ancient terracotta army, Xi’an is now making a modern name for itself as a place where people can trade technologies.
The Xi’an Technology Resources Mar ket founded in 2011 is designed to capi talize on local resources to boost devel opment of the sprawling Guanzhong-Tianshui economic zone, which covers 696,000 square kilometers in Shaanxi and Gansu provinces.
Benefiting from the vibrant tech envi ronment in Xi’an, the market has helped make technological transactions worth more than 20 billion yuan ($3 billion) since it began operation two years ago.
By the end of 2012, 16,793 deals had been made that had a combined value of 30 billion yuan.
The market now also offers e-plat forms including traditional and mobile Internet.
People who visit the market hall can benefit from more than 110 services ranging from technology trading and equipment sharing to intellectual prop erty protection.
The e-platforms list information about 874 colleges and universities, 5,826 pro fessionals, 6,368 items of technology for sale and more than 11000 high-tech companies to satisfy specific demands of more than 11,000 members.
The online portal received 1.84 million hits by the end of last year.
The market is now expanding its cov erage with a mobile phone app and an online cloud computing service center for startups.
It also started branches in Xi’an last year.
“By establishing branches and improv ing our services, we will expand our net work from Xi’an to Shaanxi province and then to other parts of the country,” said an official at the market.
To realize the ambition, the staff is improving and diversifying other services as well.
“We know Xi’an is home to many mili tary R&D institutions. But staff visits show some of them know little about products for civilian use despite their outstanding technical strength,” said a market member.
By providing up-to-date information, the market has helped them explore ways to serve the civilian market, he added.
To build an advanced system of scien tific and innovation services at the mar ket, the Xi’an Finance Bureau together with the city’s Technology Division have formulated a series of subsidies and stimulating policies.
The administrative committee for the market also encourages local techno logical trading through government’s policies that subsidize technology buy ers.
“By subsidizing buyers, we help local companies purchase technologies that improve their capacity for innovation and fuels their development,” said an official at the market.
“In 2012, we offered a total of 16 mil lion yuan in subsidies to 108 companies,” he said. “Thirty percent of the technolo gies were traded locally.”
The market’s administrative commit tee holds regular briefings to keep more high-tech enterprises abreast of national and local policies on subsides and tax rebates.
It has invited some 1,500 company employees from various industries to serve as liaison officers.
“The briefings are really benefiting,” said a company representative after a briefing at Xi’an high-tech development zone.
“They help us learn in a timely manner about favorable municipal, provincial and national policies.”
The administrative committee at the market also assists in solving problems faced by local high-tech startups.
It has built a 500-member team of technical experts, entrepreneurial men tors and other professionals that offer assistance either face-to-face or online.
In late 2012, it also worked with Youth Business China, a non-profit program to promote entrepreneurship and to provide consultancy to young entrepre neurs.
“It is really good that they helped us to find solutions to problems we face and provided valuable suggestions on our development in the next stage,” said a young entrepreneur who requested anonymity.
Another effort by the market’s admin istrative committee has been encourag ing local universities, enterprises and R&D institutions to share their equip ment with small and medium-sized enterprises that could not otherwise afford it.
Now some 207 labs offer more than 3,000 pieces of equipment.
Last year, they helped 430 compa nies save some 400 million yuan in costs while generating 250 million yuan in revenues to equipment owners.
The result created production valued at 530 million yuan.
To encourage more labs to join the effort, the administrative committee granted a 7.94 million yuan subsidy to 119 equipment owners in 2013.
The tech market has also built an analysis and testing center that pools equipment used in new materials, electronics, environmental protection, medical care, mining and biomedicine.
In addition to formulating measures to share equipment, the administrative committee is capitalizing on human resources at local universities and R&D institutions to tackle technical prob lems face by companies.
They have signed more than 30 letters of intent to companies including Xi’an Shangu Power Co and Forstar S&T Co.
“In 2013, the administrative com mittee at the market aims to raise the value of the city’s technology deals to 35 billion yuan, increase the total piec es of equipment available for sharing to 4,000 and help companies to claim tax rebates of 2 billion yuan,” said Xiang Wenrong, director of Xi’an’s bureau of science and technology.
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