In the national landscape of county-level economic development, northern Anhui serves as a crucial window for observing regional coordinated growth. This area, neither along the river nor the coast, yet sustains the ambition for industrial transformation with its status as a "hundred-billion-ton Jianghuai Granary." In recent years, Yingquan District of Fuyang City, Anhui Province, traditionally a major agricultural region, has quietly reshaped its industrial foundation through a strategic focus on "strengthening the district through industry." By concentrating efforts on gradient cultivation, technology empowerment, and business environment optimization, Yingquan District is accelerating the construction of a full-chain cultivation system from "start-ups" to "industry champions," positioning specialized and sophisticated enterprises as the "hard backbone" of regional high-quality development.
From nano-crystalline strip materials as "thin as a cicada's wing" to novel feed additives that allow piglets to receive iron supplementation without needles, and to diagnostic devices that can "intelligently sense" the "health" of cables, a group of enterprises with unique skills is thriving in Yingquan. Data shows that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, Yingquan District's GDP grew at an average annual rate of 6.3%, successfully entering the "Top 30 Districts in Comprehensive Competitiveness in Anhui Province." As of now, the district has 98 industrial enterprises above the designated size and 36 strategic emerging industry enterprises. From January to April this year, the added value of high-tech industries increased by 76.9% year-on-year, ranking second in Fuyang City.
Gradient Cultivation: The "Specialized and Sophisticated" Code Within an Injection
Stepping into the product exhibition hall of Shanghai Shenya Animal Health Fuyang Co., Ltd., cat food, dog food, veterinary drugs, and feed are neatly arranged, covering three major categories: animal drugs and additives, pet food and health products, livestock and poultry feed, and biological feed, with hundreds of varieties. "Our 'Xihe Tie' Iron Dextran Injection is widely used for the prevention and treatment of iron deficiency anemia in foals, calves, piglets, puppies, and fur-bearing animals, and its domestic market share is firmly in first place," said Liu Hongyan, Vice Chairman and General Manager of Shenya Biotechnology Co., Ltd.. Based on this product, the company developed a new type of iron dextran feed additive, changing from 'injection' to 'oral' administration, which was awarded a new product certificate by the national Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs at the beginning of this year.
Nearby, the market share of police dog-specific food also holds the top position in the country. Its vacuum packaging is also wrapped in a transparent protective film. "Police dog food is different from regular dog food and has certain technical barriers. Due to the special working nature of police dogs, the food cannot contain any additives to ensure their hearing, taste, smell, and nervous system are not disturbed, while still guaranteeing balanced nutrition and functional suitability," Liu Hongyan explained.
Few people know that the predecessor of this "Anhui Provincial Specialized and Sophisticated Champion Enterprise" was a nearly bankrupt veterinary drug factory in Fuyang. Liu Hongyan introduced that her father's generation were village veterinarians who understood the pain points of livestock farmers. In 1993, seizing the opportunity of the reform and opening-up, they acquired the factory and started their business. After 33 years of development, Shenya Biotechnology has become a new type of high-tech agricultural enterprise that takes the agricultural and livestock industry as a guide and empowers the new engine of the pet industry. It is listed on the NEEQ Innovation Layer, and Shenya Animal Health Fuyang Company is an important part of the group's layout in the pet health industry.
"The early days of entrepreneurship were not easy. What truly enabled the group to move from 'following' to 'leading' was the helping hand of the Yingquan District government," said Liu Hongyan. In 2018, before the pet economy had become a national trend, Yingquan District designated it as a key industry and allocated 120 mu of land to Shenya Biotechnology. After the first phase was completed, production capacity was quickly maxed out. The second-phase factory was just accepted this year, and the company is currently inspecting equipment. Once operational, the pet drugs, health products, and other divisions will be moved in, with projected annual sales revenue reaching 1 billion yuan. Through government matchmaking, the company has also established stable cooperation with the Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, and other higher education institutions, building provincial-level postdoctoral research workstations and academician innovation research bases, with annual R&D investment exceeding 10 million yuan.
Every step of Shenya Biotechnology's growth can be mapped within Yingquan District's gradient cultivation system: "Potential Discovery – Enterprises to be included in the designated-size category – Innovative SMEs – Provincial Specialized and Sophisticated Enterprises – National Specialized and Sophisticated 'Little Giant' Enterprises." In recent years, Yingquan has established a cultivation work system led by district leaders with multi-department collaboration. It conducts a comprehensive survey of all industrial enterprises above the designated size in the district, classifying them into a database based on indicators such as industry field, innovation capability, and development potential. Through "one enterprise, one policy" precise guidance, it clears reporting bottlenecks in key areas such as intellectual property layout and market share evidence. "The government has always supported the enterprise with a 'companionship' service, watering and fertilizing it when it was still small," Liu Hongyan said.
Cluster Foundation: The Industrial Transformation Behind an Intelligent Diagnostic Device
From a single enterprise's "breakthrough point" to a group of enterprises "connecting like beads into a chain," the effectiveness of gradient cultivation is gradually becoming apparent in Yingquan. In the production workshop of Anhui Huiyi Communication Technology Co., Ltd., located in the Yingquan Economic Development Zone, production lines are running at high speed, and batches of pipes and fittings are being produced in an orderly manner, ready to be shipped nationwide. These products are widely used in projects such as underground protection for high-voltage cables and underground laying of communication cables. The company's Chairman and General Manager, Zhou Bo, introduced that Huiyi Communication, established in 2008, focuses on the R&D, production, and sales of fiber optic sensor equipment, communication equipment, communication pipes, and power pipes. It has been recognized as an Anhui Province Specialized and Sophisticated SME and a Province Innovation Enterprise.
The product is the enterprise's calling card. At Huiyi Communication, what Zhou Bo is most proud of is the optical cable intelligent diagnostic device, which was put into mass production in 2025. "This device can monitor the health status of optical cables in real-time, and sales of this single product have already exceeded 10 million yuan." Zhou Bo showed a reporter an 8-inch tablet terminal. When the device is connected to the optical fiber, the tablet terminal displays dynamic data simultaneously, enabling remote operation. "In the past, troubleshooting cable faults required multiple people working together and segment-by-segment testing. Now, one person with one device can handle everything, and the fault location accuracy has been improved from the traditional 50 to 100 meters to 1 to 3 meters."
Zhou Bo, a native of Funan County, Fuyang, weighed the location options carefully when starting his business. "Choosing Yingquan in the end was due to its solid industrial foundation and the sincere service of the government." He recalled that from the very beginning, from providing water, electricity, and road access to building the factory, and from talent recruitment to policy support, the government provided full follow-up service and was never absent. In 2010, when the company faced financial difficulties, the government again took the lead in connecting with the financial guarantee center and banks, providing a crucial lifeline. In 2023, again upon the government's recommendation, Huiyi Communication was approved to establish the Anhui Province Enterprise R&D Center.
"The Development and Reform Commission, the Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, the Finance Bureau, the Science and Technology Bureau – all departments are 'working around the enterprise.' Without the government's push at any key node, the enterprise might have gotten stuck," Zhou Bo said. When the government reduces the burden on enterprises, they can focus on doing more. With the rise of artificial intelligence, since 2017, the company has collaborated with the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, focusing on the R&D of distributed fiber optic sensing series products, successively developing systems for railway slope safety monitoring, bridge health detection, and more. Taking the railway safety protection system as an example, it has been applied to multiple railway lines such as Beijing-Shanghai, Beijing-Harbin, and Shanghai-Nantong. "Once a person or animal approaches the railway, or if severe weather damages the communication tower, the system will issue a real-time alert, and the exact location of the incident can be pinpointed on the mobile app."
The transformation of Huiyi Communication reflects the rapid development of the new generation of information technology industry in Yingquan District. In recent years, focusing on cultivating and strengthening new quality productive forces, Yingquan District has been striving to build five strategic emerging industry clusters: new energy and energy conservation and environmental protection, high-end green food, intelligent connected new energy vehicle parts, new materials, and new generation information technology. Currently, the district has gathered 42 enterprises in the electronic information and optoelectronic display industry, including 2 national specialized and sophisticated "Little Giant" enterprises and 20 provincial specialized and sophisticated enterprises. The new generation information technology industry cluster has been included in the provincial key cultivation plan.
Innovation Empowerment: The Breakthrough of New Materials in a Roll of Nano-crystalline Strip
"These are master alloys. Through rapid solidification technology, they can be sprayed into amorphous strips as thin as paper in one go." In the production workshop of Anhui Zhixin New Materials Technology Co., Ltd., Deputy General Manager Wang Yuzhong pointed to bags of "iron lumps" and explained to a reporter. These rolls of metallic-luster strips, after processes such as winding, heat treatment, and packaging, can be processed into various high-performance magnetic cores.
Wang Yuzhong casually pulled out a section and gently tore it, the strip splitting like paper. "Its thickness is only 12 to 14 microns, equivalent to one-fifth the diameter of a human hair." Wang Yuzhong said that nano-crystalline strip material is recognized as the best soft magnetic material in the industry, and the ultra-thin nano-crystalline strip they produce has even lower losses, making it an "ideal partner" for high-frequency isolation transformers. Components made from it, such as common mode chokes, inverters, and filters, meet the development trend of the power electronics industry towards high power, high frequency, miniaturization, and energy efficiency, and are now widely used in emerging fields like automotive electronics, new energy, 5G communications, AI data centers, and the low-altitude economy.
Looking back to August 2018, Dr. Deng Bili, a graduate of Peking University, led his research team from Zhongguancun to Yingquan. In just six years, Zhixin New Materials has completed the leap from landing to being recognized as a key national specialized and sophisticated "Little Giant" enterprise. When discussing the original location choice, Wang Yuzhong explained that Fuyang's suitable climate ensures material stability, and its advantageous location gives it access to the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta markets. However, the core attraction was the local innovation ecosystem.
"Innovation is a gene inherent in the company. We invest more than 20% of our annual revenue into R&D," Wang Yuzhong said. Leveraging the Anhui Higher Education Research Institute, Zhixin New Materials has established industry-university-research cooperation with the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an Jiaotong University, the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, and other institutions, jointly cultivating nearly 30 master's and doctoral students. Currently, as the first domestic enterprise to master the thousand-ton-level ultra-thin nano-crystalline strip pressure preparation technology, the company holds over 60 core technology patents and has initiated and participated in the formulation of 6 national standards. Its complete set of production lines for nano-crystalline soft magnetic alloy ultra-thin strips, with wholly independent intellectual property rights, has been recognized as a first set of major technical equipment in Anhui Province, with technology reaching an internationally advanced level.
The "breakthrough" of Zhixin New Materials is inseparable from the continuous support of Yingquan's innovation ecosystem. It is reported that since the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, Yingquan District has been forward-looking in laying out the new materials industry, leveraging its foundational advantages in magnetic and thermal materials to strive to become an "irreplaceable link" in Anhui's trillion-level industry clusters. Currently, the Yingquan Economic Development Zone has been approved as a "dual demonstration park" for provincial-level digital transformation and intellectual property. The district has built 26 provincial-level or above innovation platforms and linked with well-known universities to implement 17 cooperative projects with higher education research institutes. In terms of talent, it has gathered over 20 high-level talents of Class D and above, including academicians, and has been approved for 1 provincial-level high-tech team and 5 northern Anhui industrial innovation teams, continuously stimulating innovation momentum.
Three enterprises, three paths, yet they jointly mark the industrial height of Yingquan. "Dig one centimeter wide, go a thousand meters deep." This is not only an interpretation of "specialization and sophistication" but also a portrayal of Yingquan's enterprises. From single enterprise breakthroughs to cluster formation, from gradient cultivation to ecological nurturing, Yingquan District has forged a new development path that aligns with the reality of northern Anhui and highlights regional characteristics, providing a "Yingquan model" for high-quality county-level economic development.
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