By Zheng Lina, commentator of Hangzhou Daily
On the racetrack of new quality productive forces, enterprises are the leading players. As the link in the innovation chain closest to the market, they are both the strongest drivers of technological innovation and its most direct beneficiaries.
Data from Tianyancha show that from January 1 to October 31, 2026, Hangzhou registered 366,000 new market entities, including 154,000 enterprises. Counting "information transmission, software and IT services" and "scientific research and technical services" among the twenty major industry categories as tech-related entities, 92,400 new tech entities were registered in January-October, including 55,400 enterprises. Behind this string of growing numbers is the innovation vitality surging through the market.
Enterprises are the principal actors in innovation and the most sensitive to market demand. That is easy to understand: on the one hand, they sit closest to the market, read the timing and trends best, and can pinpoint the direction of innovation; on the other, competitive pressure drives them to pursue innovation and turn its results into products.
Amid intensifying international competition, what do enterprises compete on? Product quality and service — and, more critically, technology.
Today, the intensity of a company's R&D investment and its efforts in core technology determine how strong its innovation capacity is and how high it can climb in its industry. Next, the 75th Annual Meeting of ISO/TC 61, the International Organization for Standardization's Technical Committee on Plastics, will be held in Hangzhou. Among its co-organizers is a company rooted in Xiaoshan, Hangzhou — BioStar (Hangzhou) Biomaterials Co., Ltd. That a local enterprise can stand on the international standards stage rests not on scale, but on solid technological strength and industrial depth. The company holds 38 patents, and several of its original technologies have been industrialized; its technical standards and commercial capabilities cover China, the United States and Europe. It is a vivid example of a Hangzhou enterprise winning a voice in global standards through technological innovation.
Enterprises are the "question setters," "answer writers" and "graders" of technological innovation, playing the main force in both innovation and its industrial application. A new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is accelerating, and a large number of Hangzhou's high-tech enterprises, specialized and sophisticated "little giant" firms and manufacturing champions are growing fast. Enterprises must dare to "take center stage," keep raising R&D investment and innovation capacity, tackle frontier technologies, plan ahead for new tracks, and play the leading role in more industry-academia-research tasks, strengthening their voice in innovation decisions and the organization of science and technology projects.
During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, Hangzhou aims to move from the "2 trillion yuan club" to the "3 trillion yuan club." Let enterprises take the lead in technological innovation and more SMEs become innovation "vanguards," so that the "new content" of the urban economy keeps rising and new quality productive forces keep emerging, building strong momentum for high-quality development.
Source: Hangzhou Daily. Read original (Chinese).