The Baotou Rare Earth High-tech Industrial Development Zone – located in Baotou city in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region – is said to have put in a particularly strong performance in the latest national evaluation of high-tech zones in the country.

The Ministry of Science and Technology recently released the results of the latest comprehensive ranking of 157 national high-tech zones in 2021 and the Baotou zone jumped to 75th spot, up 14 places from 2020.

The zone is the only one named after rare earth resources in China and is the first State-level, high-tech zone in the autonomous region.

What's more, it was at the forefront of Baotou city and even the entire autonomous region in many indicators in 2021. Its GDP increased by 10.2 percent year-on-year – according to preliminary figures – ranking it first in Baotou. Additionally, its general public budget revenue, the number of contracted investment projects, and their rate of arrival at the zone last year were all ranked at number one in the Baotou city region.

Since its establishment in 1990, the zone is said to have formed a comprehensive group of rare earth industry clusters – with operations ranging from raw materials to new materials and then onto agglomerated production, scientific research, testing, trading and information.

The number of national high-tech enterprises in the zone is said to lead the entire autonomous region now, accounting for 53.6 percent of the total in the city and 10.2 percent of Inner Mongolia's total.

In addition, the number of invention patents per 10,000 people there was 29.5 and the registered value of technology contracts was 796 million yuan ($124.93 million) in 2021, again ranking it first in Baotou city.

Moving forwards, plans are for it to focus on emerging as a demonstration zone for innovation-driven development and a pioneer zone for high-quality development.