With its appealing investment and natural environment, Chengdu is attracting returning overseas-educated professionals who are starting new businesses.

Zhong Yaling said building an innovation-oriented nation requires two big steps.

The first is more technological breakthroughs.

The next stride is applying them in markets to contribute to economic growth and social progress.

That is exactly what her company Yalian Technology Co is doing.

"We have an innovative business model - to transform theoretical technologies into practical instruments and equipment, or in simple terms, to realize industrial production," the founder and chairperson of the company told China Daily.

Different from most Chengdu high-tech companies that are engaged in software and bioscience research, Yalian Technology is devoted to commercializing scientific achievements in energy saving and emission reduction.

"We mainly focus on the recycling of industrial wastewater and exhaust gas, providing a set of customized solutions including technologies and equipment as well as technical training and support," Zhong noted.

After returning from Japan with a PhD in resources and the environment, Zhong established the company in 2004 with an initial investment of only 1 million yuan ($163,000).

"The first one or two years of operation is crucial in whether high-tech companies survive or not," she noted.

After many hardships, her business started to take off in 2006. It now has more than 400 employees and an annual turnover of 300 million yuan.

In the first few years, the company transformed technologies developed by its own research team of 70 technicians from across the nation.

It then has searched out cooperation with Chinese and Japanese universities.

The company has now provided professional services to about 500 customers, 80 percent of them in China.

Its business has also been extended overseas to Poland, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam, said Zhong.

And the company has created many firsts in nine years of operation.

It created China's first home-developed machine used for purification and recycling polysilicon and trichlorosilane industrial gases, followed by the first hydrogen production equipment using methanol cracking.

Its products for bioethanol dehydration, fuel ethanol production and marsh gas desulfurization also meet advanced international standards.

"We have created 11 market-oriented technologies and have been granted 20 invention patents in this field," she said.

"I'm very proud that all the patents have been commercialized and bring real benefits to society."

Zhong said Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces are actually better markets than Chengdu, but she still chose to locate the company in the inland city. "The Chengdu high-tech zone administrative committee has created a very good business environment for companies, especially for startups," she said.

"We enjoy convenient and practical support and services without any worries about having to handle complicated Chinese-style social relationships," she noted.

Zhong added Chengdu is now striving for an international environment and improvements by local government.

In addition, more advanced logistic systems, services and transport should also be set up, Zhong added.

haonan@chinadaily.com.cn