“After the completion of the Lishui Fashion Synthetic Leather Material Library, it will enable full-chain production, encompassing the entire process from product development and design to the final product launch...” Recently, good news came from the Zhejiang Southwest Science and Technology Innovation Park: the nation’s first fashion synthetic leather material library project has landed in Lishui City, injecting new vitality into the development of the city's fashion industry.

The fashion industry is one of the five leading industrial clusters in Lishui’s eco-industrial sector. The establishment of this innovative platform is a vivid example of the city’s efforts to cultivate and expand industrial clusters, and it also represents a fascinating microcosm of the city’s modern industrial system featuring innovation-led and clustered development.

In recent years, Lishui City has adhered to the concept of “Ecology is the economy, and the economy must be ecological”, promoting industrial innovation through scientific and technological innovation, focusing on transforming and upgrading traditional industries, cultivating and expanding emerging industries, and planning for future industries. It has constructed a “5+5” modern eco-economic system with Lishui characteristics, namely, five pillar industries that enrich the people and strengthen the city based on ecological and cultural resources, including quality agriculture, cultural industries, tourism, forestry, and water economy, as well as five leading eco-industrial sectors characterized by innovation-driven development, including semiconductor full chains, precision manufacturing, health pharmaceuticals, the fashion industry, and the digital economy.

As industries transition to “new” and development improves in “quality”, Lishui is laying out industrial chains centered around new quality productivity. The city insists on chain clustering development, green transformation, and intelligent upgrading. It coordinates efforts at both the municipal and county levels to build pillar industrial chains within the city, fostering distinctive county-level industrial chains that leverage local strengths for competitive and collaborative advancement, leading to sustained optimization of industrial structure and significant coordination in development.

To support the construction of the five leading industrial chains, Lishui adheres to a “chain leader system” to drive industrial innovation through chain clustering development. By establishing a collaborative mechanism involving “chain leaders, chain masters, and expert teams”, the city promotes the integration and development of small, medium, and large enterprises across the industrial chain. It aims to build an ecological industrial “1315” characteristic industrial chain (one trillion-yuan level, three five-hundred-billion level, and over fifteen hundred-billion-level county-specific industrial chains), strengthening emerging industrial chains like semiconductors and traditional Chinese medicine to lead overall industrial chain development.

Zhejiang Jingray Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. is a key enterprise within Lishui’s distinctive semiconductor “Ten Thousand Acres, Trillion-Yuan Industrial Platform”. Since its establishment in Lishui, the “chain leader system” has continued to play a vital role, with service teams proactively addressing needs, establishing a precise inquiry system, and creating a communication platform among government, enterprises, and educational institutions, demonstrating commitment and effort to assist enterprises in overcoming challenges.

In just over three years, Jingray Electronics has rapidly grown into one of the leading domestic producers of silicon epitaxial wafers, holding eight invention patents. Its products are widely used in fields such as new energy vehicles, high-end equipment manufacturing, telecommunications, and consumer electronics, achieving nearly 300 million yuan in output value in 2023.

Currently, Lishui Economic Development Zone is introducing projects such as Xinyue Microelectronics and Kunmao Microelectronics, further solidifying its core position. The regions of Liandu District, Jinyun County, and Songyang County are also contributing to the development, continuously improving the semiconductor industrial chain. In the first half of the year, Lishui’s five leading industries achieved a standardized output value of 83.43 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year growth of 17.1%.

Lishui is also focusing on deepening its efforts in high-end equipment manufacturing, artificial intelligence, low-altitude economy, and new energy materials to cultivate new growth points for the future. The Lishui Economic Development Zone has introduced companies like Zhejiang Rongqi Technology Co., Ltd. and AVI Communications, accelerating the formation of an innovative ecosystem for the “low-altitude economy”. In Songyang county, nearly 130 comprehensive transportation industry enterprises have been established, with a hundred-billion-level integrated transportation industry centered on smart transportation beginning to take shape. Qingtian County is leveraging its first-mover advantage in the field of metaverse computing platforms (computing infrastructure) to accelerate the formation of an industrial ecosystem and further promote the industry’s integration and momentum.

Not only that, Lishui is firmly implementing the concept that “green mountains and clear waters are as valuable as mountains of gold and silver”. Guided by the “Ecology+” approach, It leverages germplasm resource nurseries (gardens used for conserving living germplasm resources, also known as “field gene banks”), modern agricultural parks, precision processing parks for agricultural and forestry products, high-end cultural tourism IPs and high-grade tourist attractions, and water economy industrial parks as carriers to promote the integration of technology and cross-sector fusion among the five pillar industries that enrich the people and strengthen the city, achieving full-chain development.

Green transformation is the main pathway for Lishui to optimize and innovate its industrial structure. Lishui adheres to the concept of green development, carrying out provincial-level pilot projects for pollution reduction and carbon reduction in ecologically sound cities, building green factories and parks, and promoting the transition from energy consumption dual control to carbon emissions dual control. At the same time, Lishui actively develops green industries such as new energy storage and photovoltaics, advancing integrated projects for “source-grid-load-storage” (power source, grid, load, storage) to create a green energy base in East China.

The digital economy is the greatest variable in leading economic development. To this end, Lishui is promoting both digital industrialization and the digitalization of industries, driving efficiency renewal through intelligent upgrades.

The “Number One Development Project” focuses on deepening innovations in the digital economy. It plans to establish computing power centers and develop core digital economy industries such as industrial internet, metaverse, and blockchain. The city is implementing actions like “Data Factors ×” (the National Data Bureau will explore the multiplier effect of data factors and research implementation actions with relevant departments) and “Artificial Intelligence +” (a significant strategic initiative by the Chinese government to deeply integrate artificial intelligence with the real economy), aiming to build the “Lishubao” brand (a brand or platform name created by Lishui City to promote the development of the digital economy) to promote the development of new quality productivity. Lishui insists on reform, innovation, and open cooperation, advancing the market-oriented allocation of data factors, giving a “Digital Intelligence Wing” to the economy, leading the digital economy into a fast track for comprehensive development, and creating a strong voice for building a modern industrial system.