This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. To mark the occasion, we are publishing a series of reports celebrating the city’s achievements in different aspects over the past four decades.

FORTY years ago, Yuehai Subdistrict in Nanshan District was just an intertidal zone. Fast forward four decades, the subdistrict, covering an area of 23.8 square kilometers, now houses more than 1,000 high-tech companies, according to Shenzhen Economic Daily.

The subdistrict is not only home to renowned enterprises like Huawei, ZTE, DJI and Tencent, but also where 212 industrial parks, 94 listed companies and nine unicorn companies are located, contributing more than 300 billion yuan (US$44.43 billion) to the city’s GDP.

From an intertidal zone to China’s “Silicon Valley,” Yuehai Subdistrict, which leads China’s high-tech industry, is a window to observe the industrial transformation and upgrading of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, said the Daily.

The leaps and bounds accomplished over the years in the subdistrict not only demonstrate the pioneering spirit of Shenzhen people, but also the relentless efforts of government departments to create an optimal business environment for each entrepreneur.

Established in 1985, Shenzhen Science and Technology Industrial Park in Yuehai Subdistrict is the earliest high-tech park in China. It is also where Shenzhen’s science and technology industry took off.

Huawei moved from the Nanyou Building to the industrial park in the early 1990s. At that time, Huawei was in its early stage and was short of capital. As Huawei prepared to change the dividend fund into shares of the company to its employees, it remained a question whether individual income tax should be levied on the fund.

According to senior tax officials with the district’s tax bureau, Shenzhen was already in the lead in the exploration of modern tax collection and management at the time.

Since 2000, the number of registered high-tech enterprises in Yuehai Subdistrict has been increasing steadily every year.

According to statistics, more than 100 high-tech enterprises were registered in the subdistrict each year from 2011 to 2016, and 53.6 percent of them were set up after 2011.

(Zhang Yu)