Bangalore, May 31, 2006: China is aggressively courting biotech. The work on Asia's largest biotech incubator has begun in Beijing.

 

Responding to the need for high quality biotech infrastructure in China, the country's Ministry of Science & Technology had proposed China Biotech Research Center to be located west of Beijing. This Center is a 2,50,000 sqm building with lab and office space for at least 500 research groups and about 100 intermediaries. The comprehensive project is slated to house offices of various government departments to provide administrative support for biotech start-ups, research entities, incubators and branches from financial institutes and offices of global venture capitals.

 

Talking to China’s news agency Xinhua, Wang Hongguang, Director of the China Center for Bio-technology Development, said: "We're going to provide a world-leading platform for bio-technological research and development, which can be used by hi-tech start-ups and even individual researchers." 

 

Earlier this year, China was seen officially pitching for its biotech parks at BIO 2006 in Chicago. In China more than 20 biotech parks have been set up across Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzheng. According to official estimates there are about 2,500 companies with more than 50,000 employees in modern biotechnology and with about 100 new companies joining each year the pressure on the infrastructure in increasing. The government - with a double-digit growth vision in place - is rising to the occasion.