The plaque-awarding ceremony for the national innovation-driven demonstration city of Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou province, was held on Aug 5 at the Guizhou Big Data Exhibition Center, with the China Association for Science and Technology presenting the award to Guiyang.

To create a number of regional innovation hubs with national influence and deepen the construction of pilot zones based on the theme of "Innovation China", the China Association for Science and Technology recently embarked on creating innovation-driven demonstration cities for 2023-25. Some thirty-nine prefecture-level administrative regions were approved to carry out such projects, and Guiyang made the list.

In recent years, Guiyang City and Guian New Area have worked to implement the innovation-driven development strategy, and promote the construction of "Science and Technology Innovation China" pilot cities (parks), taking scientific and technological innovation to a new level.

In 2022, the total number of high-tech enterprises in Guiyang and Guian reached 1,337, accounting for 66.25 percent of those in Guizhou, ranking first in the province.

R&D investment in the two regions now stands at 8.73 billion yuan ($1.2 billion), up 18 percent year-on-year to rank at the forefront of all provincial capitals in West China.

Taking the construction of this innovation-driven demonstration city as an opportunity, Guiyang and Guian will promote it together with the construction of another pilot project dubbed "Science and Technology Innovation China".