425 companies

Hundreds of high-tech firms and research organizations over the past few years have set up branches in a new zone of Harbin in northeast China, bordering Russia.

The pilot zone now boasts 161 national- and provincial-level research centers and 425 strategic high-tech firms from China, and is becoming the only national zone that helps China and Russia better cooperate through technological innovation.

Over the past decade Harbin, once a heavy-industry center, was struggling along with its rust-belt peers such as Changchun and Dalian to catch up with new economic hubs along China’s southeastern coast.

As a part of China’s Belt and Road initiative, Harbin’s new zone is forging a firm technological tie with Russia and bringing fresh opportunities to renew the economy.