Anhui province in East China vows to step up smart manufacturing and innovation as the major stimulus of economic growth. Home to tech startups iFLYTek, Hikvision, Kingsoft and Huami, the city has nurtured a variety of cutting-edge industries that inject new momentum to its integrated development.

In 2019, enterprises in Anhui invested a total of 93.3 billion yuan ($13.96 billion) in research and innovation, a 9.4 percent increase year-on-year. By pushing forward the development of artificial intelligence, quantum computing, new material and other tech-oriented sectors, Anhui's strategic emerging industries grew 14.9 percent in 2019 from a year earlier, and witnessed an even 8 percent increase from January to June amid virus outbreak.

Hefei took the sixth place among 169 national high-tech zones in 2019, following those in Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Wuhan and Suzhou.