NPC deputy: 'Chain chief' system helps develop industrial clusters in E China's Hefei

By appointing chiefs to industrial chains, Hefei, the capital city of east China's Anhui province, cultivated a number of national-level clusters of strategic emerging industries, said a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) from the city on Friday. 

According to Ling Yun, also mayor of the city, these "chain chiefs" are responsible for optimizing industrial development plans and policies, cultivating key companies, facilitating key projects, and building service platforms as well as mechanisms for regular services.

The chain chief positions are assumed by government officials of the city, and they are now working on 12 industrial chains, including integrated circuits, OLED display, creative culture, cyber and information security, biomedicine, energy conservation and environmental protection, smart household appliances, intelligent connected vehicles, photovoltaics and new energy, high-end equipment and new materials, artificial intelligence, and the quantum industry.

"The chain chief system helps to address impacts of disease outbreaks and floods by giving play to the advantages of China's institutional strengths," Ling said. Since the implementation of the system last June, the 12 chain systems have attracted 683 projects with a total investment of 294.21 billion yuan (US$45.43 billion).

Ling said that Hefei brought up its strategic emerging industries from scratch with continuous and great efforts over the years, taking on the opportunities brought by the new round of global technological revolution and industrial transformation.

Since the start of the 13th Five-Year Plan period in 2016, Hefei's strategic emerging industries has maintained a double-digit growth every year, and three national, seven provincial, and 10 municipal clusters gradually took shape. In 2020, the output from these emerging industries grew by 18.2% year on year, accounting for 55.5% of the output from industries above the designated size.

For the next five years, the city plans to build five world-class clusters, two clusters each with an output of up to 500 billion yuan, and eight clusters each with an output of over 100 billion yuan, Ling said.