Yinchuan Economic and Technological Development Zone was set up as approved by the State Council in 2001, with a planning control area of about 83 square kilometers.

The national-level development zone is home to 7,303 companies and 44 high-tech companies. The zone's fixed assets investment was 7.77 billion yuan($1.15 billion)in 2017 and that year it attracted an additional 4.3 billion yuan.

It greatly promotes three leading industries -- strategic new materials, modern equipment manufacturing and health services. The 17 large strategic new materials companies in the zone focus on crystalline material such as monocrystalline silicon and industrial sapphire.

The zone is home to more than 40 large equipment manufacturing companies and some of them boast nationally leading technologies, such as Ningxia Yinchuan Dahe CNC Machine Co Ltd and Kocel Steel Foundry Co Ltd.

A series of national-level and autonomous region-level research centers are being built in the zone, including institutes for grapheme and magnesium alloy research.