In 2016, the added value created in Zhongguancun accounted for 25 percent of Beijing’s GDP, contributing 39 percent to the capital city’s economic growth, according to a joint report by the Zhongguancun Institute of Innovation & Development and the Beijing Fangdi Institute of Economic Development.

According to the report, the “2017 Zhongguancun Index,” Zhongguancun has become the core driving force in Beijing for its shifting growth model, structural adjustment and economic development.

The report showed that Zhongguancun’s comprehensive index in 2016 stood at 466.9, an increase of 67.2 over the previous year. This index is composed of six sub-indices, including the environment for innovation and entrepreneurship, innovation capability, industrial development, enterprise growth, economic drivers and internationalization.

At present, Zhongguancun is home to 312 listed companies with a total market value of more than 5.5 trillion yuan (US$ 839.69 billion). As of the end of last year, Zhongguancun enterprises had established 535 branches overseas.

With the total revenue of 4.6 trillion yuan in 2016, high-tech enterprises at Zhongguancun have been at the forefront of the world in new industries and technologies such as artificial intelligence and grapheme. For instance, Zhongguancun has five enterprises -- two more than the Silicon Valley -- that hold face recognition technologies with accuracy at 99 percent or higher.

The report also showed 53 percent of the workforce in Zhongguancun enterprises in 2016 hold bachelor’s degrees or higher. Among them, 263,000 employees have master’s degrees and 25,000 have doctoral degrees.