Independent innovation has become a buzz phrase among 2.39 million enterprises located in 16 prefecture-level cities in Anhui province.

A shining example of the trend emerged at a breakfast meeting in August in Wuhu, where Wang Jun, head of Anhui Zhiyixin Information Technology Co, put forward a suggestion, "We can build a market-oriented automobile culture exchange center on the old shipyard, with historical classic cars, modern fuel vehicles and future new energy vehicles as the axis."

On the same day, Wuhu Riverside Cultural and Tourism Co held talks with Wang on the matter. They agreed to elevate the "Old Shipyard-Smart Port" project by adopting the latter's suggestions.

Another example is the innovative work done at the clean workshop of Tianhong New Materials Co Ltd located in Jieshou under the jurisdiction of Fuyang. There, workers clicked on the numerical control panel to operate the machines efficiently so as to produce coils of lithium battery separators.

Hu Wei, who is in charge of the company, said that in recent years, Tianhong New Materials had undergone digital transformation. "In the past, a work shift needed 40 people, but the improved automation has reduced the need to 32 people."

According to the Anhui Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology, the number of industrial enterprises in the province with annual revenue of at least 20 million yuan ($2.8 million) each, reached a record high of 22,000 in 2023. Like Tianhong New Materials and Wuhu Riverside Cultural and Tourism Co, each of the 22,000 enterprises strives for independent innovation to boost earnings.

That is not all. In 2023, there were 2.22 million private enterprises in the province, which contributed to nearly 61 percent of Anhui's GDP and 59.5 percent of its tax revenue, providing over 80 percent of new jobs in cities and towns, and accounting for almost 93 percent of the total number of its enterprises.

In June 2016, the cities of Hefei, Wuhu and Bengbu were authorized by the central government to be part of a national independent innovation demonstration zone.

The Hefei National High-Tech Industry Development Zone, also known as the Speech Valley of China, is considered a crucial innovation platform for the intelligent speech industry in the country.

Anhui Conch Group, founded in September 1996 and based in Wuhu, is the first A-share and H-share listed company in the cement industry, and has been selected as a "world-class demonstration enterprise".

In Bengbu, the State Key Laboratory of Float Glass New Technology, built in 2010 by the Bengbu Design & Research Institute for Glass Industry of China National Building Material Group Co Ltd and China Luoyang Float Glass Group Co Ltd, is known for making ultra-thin glass.

Peng Shou, head of the institute and the lab, is an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering. During a visit to the lab on Aug 8, Party secretary of Anhui, Liang Yanshun, urged Peng to place technological innovation at the forefront and pursue more industrialization achievements, so as to constantly expand new quality productive forces.