OVC holds forum on industrial innovation

Updated: 2017-06-02 

The Wuhan East Lake High-tech Development Zone, also known as the Optical Valley of China (OVC), held its first summit forum on the topic of industrial innovation on May 27.

More than 200 entrepreneurs and investors from 77 companies attended the forum, including Lei Jun, founder of China’s smartphone maker Xiaomi, and Lenovo’s Chairman Yang Yuanqing.

“The total output value of Lenovo’s Wuhan industrial base reached 117.2 billion yuan ($17.2 billion) by the end of 2016 and total exports hit 9.36 billion yuan,” said Yang Yuanqing at the forum.

“In 2016, Lenovo’s output value in Wuhan reached 38.1 billion yuan, and the value of exports reached 4.6 billion yuan,” said Yang.

“Lenovo’s output value and exports are the highest among all businesses in the OVC for 2016,” he added.

“At present, Lenovo has more than 10,000 employees in Wuhan,” Yang said.
“The business revenue for Xiaomi was over $10 billion during the first five years of operations,” said Xiaomi’s founder Lei Jun.

“Xiaomi has broken the world record for achieving business revenue of more than $10 billion in the shortest time period,” Lei said.

“This year, Xiaomi is expected to have receivables of over $100 billion,” he added.
Lei Jun claimed that Xiaomi is one of only two Chinese companies that have been included in the latest Top 50 Most Innovative Companies list released by the Boston Consulting Group.

Cheng Yongwen, secretary of the Party Working Committee of Wuhan East Lake High-tech Development Zone, claimed that Xiaomi’s industrial development model will help give direction to China’s supply-side structural reform.

“This model is the development model that the OVC strongly favors.”