Hi-tech New Zealand firms and researchers are being encouraged to look at setting up in Beijing's Zhongguancun Science Park, while at the same time, Chinese graduates from New Zealand universities are being urged to use Zhongguancun International Incubator established in the park three years ago to attract successful Chinese graduates to launch hi-tech start-up businesses.

There have already been results, with 40 Chinese graduates having returned from New Zealand to set up 18 start-up businesses in Zhongguancun, most in the area of hi-tech research and development. Zhongguancun has become the most important growth point in Beijing's economic development and contributes 60 per cent of the city's total industrial growth, the park's deputy director, Dr Xia Yingqi, says. In 2001 it contributed 18 per cent of the total income of China's 53 new and hi-tech parks. "By 2010 we should have a world-class science park," Dr Xia says. "We are working day and night, even weekends."