Hunan Xiangjiang New Area will carry out new policies to attract foreign investment to boost innovation in the region.

The policies include creating innovative platforms, reforming the green card policy for foreign experts, and giving financial support to specific organizations, according to a plan published on Aug 31 by the management committee of Xiangjiang New Area.

The Xiangjiang New Area will create a service platform to offer integrated services in terms of intellectual property trading and testing. This policy should help reduce costs for businesses based in the area.

To draw more foreign experts to work in the region, the Xiangjiang New Area will try to simplify the immigration and residence process. The local authorities will encourage foreign students to find jobs or start businesses in the new area after they complete their education.

In terms of financial support, the management committee of the new area will allocate 100 million yuan ($15 million) every year to subsidize business innovation and other successful commercial practices. Special funds will also be used to financially support small and medium-sized businesses in emerging industries.

The Xiangjiang New Area is the first state-level new area in Central China, and was established in 2015. It is located on the west bank of the Xiangjiang River and comprises several districts of Changsha. The government aims to build the new area into a high-tech manufacturing and innovation base, which will aid the development of Central China and the Yangtze economic belt.

In the first half of 2016, Xiangjiang New Area achieved GDP of 69.7 billion yuan ($10.43 billion) with year-on-year growth of 12 percent, raking seventh among the 18 state-level new areas.