Introduction
The story of transforming from “a blank sheet of paper” to a scientific new city is not uncommon.
(The human-computer interaction AI desktop robot LOOI, which received praise from Musk. Photo: Li Pei)The story of transforming from “a blank sheet of paper” to a scientific new city is exemplified by Songshan Lake Science City.On June 23-24, the “Vibrant China Research Tour” reporter group visited here.Located in the geometric center of Dongguan, Songshan Lake features a shimmering lake surrounded by green islands, with rolling mountains and lush trees. The explosion of innovation in this area can be traced back to the upgrade of Songshan Lake to a national high-tech zone.Rewind to 2010, when Songshan Lake was still a patchwork of lychee orchards. A government approval marked a new starting point for development, allowing a large number of high-tech enterprises to incubate and grow here.“In 2014, our team had only five or six people. When we came to Songshan Lake, it was sparsely populated, surrounded by lychee trees,” recalled Pan Zongliang, co-founder and COO of Guangdong Yidong Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Yidong Technology”). “This is a science city that grew out of lychee trees.”In 2018, based on parts of the Songshan Lake High-tech Zone, the Songshan Lake Science City was constructed by integrating areas from Dalang, Dalingshan, Huangjiang, and other surrounding towns, covering a total area of 90.5 square kilometers. It features entrepreneurial incubation platforms such as the XbotPark robot base and Songshan Lake Developer Village, and gathers key projects like the Spallation Neutron Source and Songshan Lake Material Laboratory, creating a fertile ground for innovation where technology and nature intertwine.As an important part of the technological innovation ecosystem in Songshan Lake Science City, the XbotPark robot base is a representative early-stage hard-tech entrepreneurial incubation base. It hosts a large number of robot companies in fields such as home services, smart sports, and entertainment, and has incubated unicorn companies like Hai Rou Innovation and Yun Whale Intelligence.
(The XbotPark robot base located in Dongguan Songshan Lake. Photo: Li Pei)From the XbotPark robot base, Yidong Technology’s marine power propulsion equipment has reached green scenic spots such as Wuhan East Lake, Hangzhou West Lake, Shanghai Suzhou River, and Guilin Li River; Benmo Technology has launched several wheeled robots like Xingtian, TITA, and D1 using direct drive motor technology; LiberLive’s stringless guitar breaks tradition, helping countless music lovers easily play melodies… This place is not just a physical space, but a “dream factory” for hard-tech entrepreneurship, where innovative ideas are born and realized.
(The pet drying box developed and produced by HomeRunPet. Photo: Li Pei)“For a company, moving from ‘0’ to ‘1’, from idea to product is very important. We need to quickly turn our design concepts into products. When we move from ‘1’ to ‘100’, we can only achieve rapid product iteration under a strong ecosystem and supply chain system, compressing the product iteration cycle, allowing us to lead the industry,” said Liu Xi, Director of External Relations at Benmo Technology. “This is also the reason we chose Songshan Lake.”For technology innovation companies, especially those in the startup phase, the industrial ecosystem is like soil for seedlings; only a continuously optimized ecological environment can provide sustained nourishment for technology innovation companies in key areas such as technology research and development, achievement transformation, and market expansion.The XbotPark robot base has built an interactive and supportive ecosystem for companies, allowing them to form a symbiotic and prosperous development network through technical exchanges, industrial collaboration, and market expansion, incubating and growing from here to broader markets and stages.Thanks to the strong atmosphere of innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as comprehensive support and a good industrial ecosystem, enterprises in new energy, biomedicine, semiconductors, and robotics have flocked here. Today, Songshan Lake Science City has formed a modern industrial pattern covering four strategic emerging industries: robot and intelligent equipment manufacturing, semiconductors and integrated circuits, biomedicine and health, new materials and new energy, as well as productive service industries and future industries.Data shows that as of now, Songshan Lake Science City has over 17,000 market entities, including 7 national-level manufacturing champions, 770 national high-tech enterprises, 64 listed and pre-listed companies, 259 provincial-level and above specialized and innovative enterprises, and 234 enterprises with annual revenues exceeding 100 million yuan.Finance is the “lifeblood” of technological innovation and a key engine driving the continuous vitality of Songshan Lake Science City.As the fourth comprehensive national science center pilot area in the country, Songshan Lake Science City actively strengthens financial empowerment, establishing the Songshan Lake Angel Investment Fund with a total scale of 1 billion yuan, with an initial scale of 500 million yuan; additionally, the Songshan Lake finance department has also participated in funding the Dongguan Strategic Emerging Industry Guidance Fund, with a total scale of 5 billion yuan.Furthermore, during an interview with the Financial Times, it was learned that Songshan Lake Science City has also established a financing risk compensation fund pool with a total scale of 100 million yuan per year. For financing projects of small and micro enterprises, the maximum compensation ratio for a single financing loss is 50% of the actual principal loss of that financing.“As a company in Songshan Lake, we have received a lot of policy support from the park in terms of financial guarantees in recent years,” Pan Zongliang stated in an interview with the Financial Times. “We obtained credit loan interest subsidies through the park, and in 2022, there were also technology finance relief policies, which greatly reduced our funding costs and effectively alleviated cash flow pressure in R&D investment and large-scale production, allowing us to allocate more funds to core technology breakthroughs and expand into global markets.”Here, entrepreneurs can not only receive financial support but also obtain full-chain innovation support in technology research and development, talent supply, industrial collaboration, and market expansion. A scientific city that integrates innovative vitality and development potential is stepping forward towards becoming a global source of technological innovation.
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Article Source: Financial Times Client
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