The city of Baotou - located in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region - is understood to be vigorously encouraging businesses, universities and scientific research institutions to focus on the high-quality development of industry.

In so doing, last year it increased its investment in scientific and technological research, as well as further improved the area's general scientific and technological innovation capabilities.

As a result, the integration of scientific research and industrial development in Baotou is said to have grown appreciably. The city has made declarations, identifying key technology research projects in the autonomous region - and funds have been guided by the central government into major science and technology projects in the autonomous region.

One example is the Jiuyuan district of Baotou, which applied for 13 categories of funding for science and technology projects for enterprises and recommended 30 projects. As a result, a series of promotion projects received 2.11 million yuan ($334,075) in science and technology funds.

The initiative for innovation bodies to invest in scientific research in Baotou has gathered momentum and yielded results. The Jiuyuan district has newly added nine small and medium-sized enterprises operating in the field of national science and technology, four national high-tech enterprises and three mass innovation spaces.

Jiuyuan's investment was projected to account for 1.21 percent of its GDP in 2021. Meanwhile, Baotou's high-quality innovation platforms within its enterprises have grown rapidly and it identified 27 enterprise research and development centers in the autonomous region.

Baotou last year actively promoted cooperation in sci-tech innovation between enterprises and key scientific research institutions and universities, that have been selected by the authorities as being "first-class universities and disciplines" – part of a national strategy to increase the quality of tertiary education substantially in the next few decades.

In the meantime, Baotou has collected a host of scientific and technological achievements from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences and other colleges and universities.

It released a list of more than 140 scientific and technological achievements, providing an effective platform for regional scientific and technological cooperation.