Since last year, Anhui Province has adhered to the principle of letting science and technology take the lead and making well-considered moves in innovation to constantly achieve new scientific discoveries, new technological inventions, new industrial directions, and new institutional drivers, thereby taking solid steps toward becoming a hub of scientific and technological innovation with nationwide influence.

Scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation are the fundamental pathways for developing new quality productive forces. Focusing on the modern industrial system, our province has aligned innovation chains with industrial chains and deployed industrial chains around innovation chains to develop new quality productive forces according to local conditions, accelerating the transformation of scientific research achievements from laboratories to production lines and enhancing the support of scientific and technological innovation for industrial development.

Enterprises are the main drivers of innovation. To stimulate more innovation vitality among enterprises, our province has introduced 20 measures to promote the high-quality development of sci-tech enterprises, providing substantial financial support for enterprise innovation. Innovation resources are increasingly being allocated to enterprises, with over 80% of provincial-level scientific and technological projects, funds, and research and development investments being undertaken by enterprises.

The results are evident in the data: In 2025, the province added over 7,000 new tech-based small and medium-sized enterprises, bringing the total to 42,000, and cultivated 18 unicorn companies. The number of companies listed on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board, tech-based SMEs, unicorn companies, and high-tech enterprises ranked 6th, 5th, 6th, and 8th in the country, respectively.

Additionally, the added value of high-tech industries above the designated size in the province increased by 15.1% year-on-year, surpassing the growth rate of industrial enterprises above the designated size by 5.7 percentage points. The export value of high-tech products reached 159.82 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.6%, and the province's evaluation in the artificial intelligence industry jumped to 5th place nationwide.

Since last year, the province has advanced the substantive reform of the Hefei Binhu Science City with high standards and high quality, focusing on improving top-level design, building innovation platforms, and strengthening scenario development. A number of major projects, such as the Deep Space Science City, are also under planning and construction.

Efforts were accelerated to develop the science and technology service industry. Our province took the lead nationwide in introducing an action plan for the high-quality development of the science and technology service industry and administrative measures for the construction of innovation clusters in this sector, establishing ten high-level clusters.

Adhering to both scientific and technological innovation and institutional innovation, and continuously improving the systems and mechanisms that support comprehensive innovation, Anhui is underpinning its technological innovation and industrial development with fintech and technology services. By cultivating a high-level innovation ecosystem, the province is safeguarding its journey of scientific and technological advancement.

In 2026, the story of "Innovative Anhui" continues. Accumulating strength in scientific and technological innovation across the land of Jianghuai, Anhui is accelerating the transformation of its innovative "potential" into the "driving force" for high-quality development.

Source: Anhui Daily