The Xi'an HTDZ set the development stage for the space-borne control system and communications equipment used in China's first satellite and for the control systems used in the Shenzhou manned spacecraft. Other strides marked here were China's first ICs, power semiconductors, stored program control telephone exchange, cell phone, color CRT and ultrahigh-voltage power transmission equipment.

The Xi'an HTDZ now occupies 35 square kilometers, and plans are in place to expand that to 98 sq. km. in the next few years. The zone is home today to about 12,000 companies. It includes an Electronics Park, an Industrial Park, a Pioneering Park for research activities and a Software Park that was one of the first four commercial software bases authorized by the government. R&D and design companies here outnumber the HTDZ's ranks of OEMs and integrators.

"We focus our key businesses on such industries as electronics and information technology, equipment manufacturing, biomedicine and the modern services industry--especially on industrial clusters with competitive advantages, such as ICs, software, communi- cations, electronic components, optical-mechanical-electronic integration equipment, automotive (including electric vehicles) and aviation and space applications," said Zhao Jing, deputy director of the Xi'an HTDZ administrative committee. "One of our goals is to actively develop a 'headquarters economy' by making the Xi'an HTDZ an attractive alternative for multinational companies and high-growth enterprises setting up regional headquarters for administration and R&D."

"Many foreign companies, such as Infineon, NEC and Applied Materials, have established R&D centers in Xi'an," said Jia Xinchang, deputy director of the HTDZ administrative committee's Bureau of Economic and Trade Development. Jia offered this anecdote to explain the region's draw: "One foreign company had failed to [finish the design] of a communications chip in Europe for more than two years. Then it recruited a guy who had just graduated from a university in Xi'an. The guy spent less than eight months completing the design."

A number of U.S. and European companies have broken ground on installations here in the past two years. A Micron Semiconductor package testing facility and an Applied Materials semiconductor equipment design operation separately completed first-phase construction in 2007, and both companies are now putting second-phase plans in place. Applied Materials's 32-nanometer equipment is under test here and is the first such equipment the company has developed outside the United States. German drive automation company SEW-Eurodrive has finished the planning and design phases for a facility here. Amphenol has a $50 million investment in a joint venture project.