China Railway Construction Heavy Industry Co Ltd has made over 1,300 patents, promoting the efficiency of product lines. [Photo by Jiang Lian/csxrmt.com]

Statistics showed that the Changsha Economic and Technological Development Zone (CETZ) made 1,527 patents in 2018, a year-on-year increase of 16 percent.

In recent years, CETZ has been perfecting its intellectual property and technological innovation policies, ranking first among national industrial parks for three consecutive years on the annual performance assessment.

In the "underground space era", whoever controls the core technology controls the underground market. China Railway Construction Heavy Industry Co Ltd (CRCC) has developed the largest underground engineering equipment development and manufacturing center, and has the largest market share among all heading machine and special equipment enterprises.

CRCC always dreamed of obtaining a patent for shielding machine technology. Ever since its establishment in 2007, it has been committed to technological innovation and industrial development. It has over 1,300 patents in total and has been awarded the title of "Intellectual Property Demonstration Enterprise".

SANY Group is another enterprise that uses patent to get a head start. Since 2005, SANY has established over 10 parts companies and has invested over seven billion yuan ($1.04 billion) in the development and industrialization of key components.

SANY has made a series of world-class products, including the world's longest steel-arm pump truck, a 200-ton hydraulic excavator, a 3,600-ton crawler crane and Asian's first thousand-ton all-terrain crane, which established the company as an industry leader.

The continuous growth of patents is largely a result of Changsha's governmental policies on technological innovation. The Changsha Economic and Technological Development Zone introduced Incentive Guidance on Patent-Driving Innovation and Development in 2014 to support intellectual property movement. In 2018, the zone upgraded its original policies to expand subsidies and encourage the application of patents.

In addition to direct incentives for patents, the zone has also supported research investment to provide a decent environment for invention. According to an official from the Industrial Environmental Protection Bureau of CETZ, the zone will promote service quality and carry out relevant policies in 2019 to help enterprises make technological achievements and become engines of innovative development.