Places across China are working to boost innovation and upgrade traditional industries. In east China’s Zhejiang province, the local government will invest 500 billion yuan ($76.8 billion) into 100 featured “towns” within three years.

Each town will focus on specialized industries. CCTV’s Wu Lei reports.

Sun Hui works at a start-up in the Cloud computing and big data industry. He believes big data means big businesses so he started his company in the Cloud Town in March 2015.

They have provided cloud computing and big data services to more than 15 government agencies and enterprises. He said the company’s fast growth and expansion is due to the the ecosystem the town offers.

“Besides favorable financial and tax policies, this town provides us with a cloud computing ecosystem. After our entry, we made the big data industry chain more complete. At the same time, we also have a deeper cooperation with our partners like Alibaba,” he said.

So far, there are about 360 enterprises in Cloud Town, gathering many famous big data giants including Aliyun. Director of the town, Lyu Gangfeng said they are working to build the town in a new innovation center, because its been so popular.

Zhejiang plans to build 100 special towns within three years. Different from administrative divisions, each town, which is about three square kilometers in area, will gather companies of one specific industry and provide certain preferential policies to support its development.

While this town focuses on cloud computing industries, there are also dozens of other towns featuring traditional manufacturing sectors. But with the help of new mechanisms, local officials expect that these towns will play active roles in nurturing new economic growth.

Zhejiang has announced 79 featured towns across the province, including Dream Town, featuring internet start-ups, and Socks Town specializing in sock manufacturing.

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