Tech hub

BEIJING’S high-tech hub Zhongguancun Science Park recorded a yearly increase of 11.9 percent in its revenue in the first seven months of this year amid active technological innovation.

According to the latest data released by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics, revenue from the park’s high-tech enterprises above a designated size reached 3.2 trillion yuan (US$451 billion) in the period. The park’s six major high-tech fields have maintained rapid growth.

Shanghai AI plan

SHANGHAI has issued a three-year action plan to boost the development of its artificial intelligence (AI) industry, aiming to build itself into an AI highland by 2021.

According to the plan unveiled at the closing ceremony of the 2019 World Artificial Intelligence Conference, Shanghai will subsidize key AI projects with 30 percent of their investment. The amount of subsidy for each project will be capped at 20 million yuan. Huawei’s 5G innovation center will also be set up in Shanghai’s Pudong New Area.

Leverage ratio

THE country’s leverage ratio increased slightly in the second quarter of the year, according to a latest report released by the National Institution for Finance and Development.

The overall leverage ratio, which measures the nation’s outstanding debt in the real economy against nominal GDP, rose to 249.5 percent in the second quarter, up 0.7 percentage points from a quarter earlier. The second quarter’s increase narrowed from the first-quarter’s rise of 5.1 percentage points, data from the report showed. The report attributed the downturn to a falling corporate leverage ratio.