Songshan Lake Already Introduced Over 100 Biotech Enterprises and Research Institutes On August 15, Songshan Lake High-tech Zone Administrative Committee held a seminar themed with industry-college-institute cooperation promoting the development of biotech industry in Peking University. CAS academicians Zeng Yi and Hou Yunde, Professor Gunther Trankle of Technical University of Berlin and economic adviser to Mayor of Dongguan, and other domestic and international leading figures in biotechnology joined the seminar to explore the industry s hot topics and offer their suggestions for the development of Dongguan s biotech industry. It s understood that the National High-tech Zone has already introduced over 100 biotech enterprises and research institutes and the Cross-Straits Biotech Industry Cooperation Base is undergoing rapid development. Now Songshan Lake has preliminarily formed a complete biotech industry chain. A number of enterprises and research institutes have expressed their wish to join Songshan Lake. Songshan Lake Biotech Industry Developing at a Scale The over 100 biotech enterprises and research institutes introduced into Songshan Lake, including HEC Pharm and Handsome Biological Technology, cover such fields of research and scope of business as laboratory animals, new drug development, gene diagnosis and medical equipment. A relatively complete industry chain integrating education, scientific research, pilot scale production and sales has been formed. A director of Songshan Lake High-tech Zone Administrative Committee pointed out that supporting resources for all links of the biotech enterprises could be found in Songshan Lake. Centering on comprehensive development, the biotech industry in Songshan Lake is oriented towards chemical pharmaceuticals, biological generic drugs, TCM, medical equipment and diagnosis reagents; industry-college-institute cooperation focused, the biotech industry strives to realize cluster-based development. According to experts, Songshan Lake located in the central area of the Pearl River Delta Biotech Industry Cluster is surrounded by biotech industry bases in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhongshan and Foshan which cover various pharmaceutical products and medical equipment. Therefore, various supporting conditions can be provided for the development of biotech industry in Songshan Lake. Meanwhile, Songshan Lake renders great support to the development of biotech industry in terms of policies and innovative environment. There are Set-sail Policies oriented towards micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and Chinese Parasol Program to attract talents. Since 2009 Songshan Lake has accumulatively granted RMB 130 million science and technology funds to enterprises to help enhance their proprietary innovation ability. It s understood that the Cross-Straits Biotech Industry Cooperation Base has been upgraded as an important strategy of Guangdong Province. Forming a troika together with Dongguan Taiwan High-tech Park and Yuehai Finance Experimental Zone, the Cross-Straits Biotech Industry Cooperation Base enjoys the preferential policies of Guangdong Province. The six platforms of Guangdong Province, including Dongguan Taiwan High-tech Park, Nanhai District and Qianhai District, will be entitled to the provincial administration authorities to be delegated. The Green Channel of the Food and Drug Administration of Guangdong Province is one of them. Experts Suggesting Building Platforms for Cluster-based Development The biotech industry is an ever sunrise industry and a hotspot nowadays heatedly developed across China. Li Qing, director of Development Center for Medical Science and Technology of National Health and Family Planning Commission of the People s Republic of China, revealed that the biotech industry of Songshan Lake has accomplished a great deal, formed its own features and accumulated experience. The next step is to foster enterprises and realize better cluster-based development of the industry. Experts at the seminar pointed out that the success of biotech industry requires talent, capital, market and government support. While Beijing is the political, cultural and technological center of China and offers competitive strengths in talents, Guangdong is a major economy with tremendous capital and market resources. The strong partnership between Guangdong and Beijing will surely promote the development of biotech industry. Therefore, Dongguan should build internationally influential platforms to gather capital, talents, channels and competitive strengths. Joining the seminar was also FBH engaged in semiconductor and laser products applied to biotechnology. This internationally famous research institute from Germany has partnered up with Dongguan Institute of Opto-electronics Peking University established in Songshan Lake. Gunther Trankle, director of FBH, revealed that this would be a good beginning to cooperate with Dongguan enterprises. CAS academician Zeng Yi is a Guangdong native and a domestically famous biopharmaceutical expert. After several visits to Dongguan, he believed in the great prospects of the local biotech industry. He hoped to industrialize its proprietary internationally leading preventive medicine technology in Dongguan, and accelerate its transformation by setting up special funds and introducing specialized venture capital organizations. Liu Ning, deputy secretary general of Dongguan Municipal People s Government and secretary of Songshan Lake (Biopark) Party Working Committee, pointed out that Songshan Lake would give great support in terms of project approval, financing and public technical platform construction to boost the development of biotech industry.