The Chengdu Hi-tech Zone has been hailed as the “Silicon Valley of western China” – and for good reason.

By the end of 2020, Chengdu Hi-tech Zone will have invested an accumulated RMB 5 billion (approximately USD 730 million) to entice and recruit talent from around the globe, while another USD 1.46 billion will be newly added to augment the competitiveness of its scientific and technological innovation system.

A rising amount of international talent is flocking to the central cities of China, largely spurred on by the Chinese economy's sustained growth and continued investment in the high and new technology segment.

And it's not just first tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guanzhou that are experiencing this growth - a substantial portion have opted for "China's new first-tier" cities like Chengdu in the western part of the country, while hi-tech industrial parks have become a focal point for a large number of global talent.

In charge of the human resources department at Chengdu Hi-tech Zone, Gan Lijun explains that this year the zone will continue reinforcing cooperation with global innovation hubs such as Silicon Valley, Tel Aviv and Sophie Antipolis.

In particular, actions will be taken to strengthen the establishment of an offshore overseas talent base, create mass entrepreneurship spaces and offshore incubators with overseas "pre-incubation" functionality, and fortify exchanges with world-class educational institutions like Harvard University and Stanford University, so as to "emphatically promote reform on the science and technology supply side, and attract talent from across the globe".

While it is situated in inland China, the level of development of Chengdu Hi-tech Zone stands shoulder-to-shoulder with those in the Chinese coastal region.

Recent statistics reveal that in 2016 Chengdu Hi-tech Zone had GDP per capita exceeding USD 30,000; attracted a total of 12,700 science and technology companies and an accumulated 83,000 companies, of which more than a thousand are foreign funded enterprises and 115 are Fortune Global 500 companies; and realized about USD 23 billion in total trade.

Meanwhile, the Chinese central government has upgraded the city of Chengdu to the status of "national central city" and assigned it the new objective of becoming the "science and technology center of western China".

Chengdu Hi-tech Zone is the pillar that underpins Chengdu's endeavor in building a national central city and has amassed the interest of an increasing number of international talent.