A thin, paper-like foldable AMOLED screen of BOE Technology Group is on display at the 14th Optics Valley of China International Optoelectronic Exposition and Forum held in Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei Province. Photo: IC

Optical fiber enterprises in a high-technology zone in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province, account for 25 percent of the global market, and they have been actively promoting the construction of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and high-quality local development, a senior official said on Wednesday.

Since 2001, the zone, which is widely known as the Optics Valley of China, has attracted more than 2,300 technology ventures, including Chinese telecom giant Huawei's research institute and smartphone vendor Xiaomi, Jiang Chaoliang, secretary of the Hubei Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, said at a press conference Wednesday.

The added value of the sector reached 665.3 billion yuan ($96.36 billion) in 2018, which was 92 times that of 1996, Jiang said.

The GDP of Hubei stood at 3.94 trillion yuan in 2018, with an average annual growth of 8.5 percent since 1952, according to Jiang. 

"Hubei has given full play to the advantages of its numerous universities and research institutes, and the province has actively implemented the innovation-driven development strategy," Dong Dengxin, director of the Finance and Securities Institute at Wuhan University, told the Global Times Wednesday.

Optics Valley has built a sound system combining education, research and production, to guarantee the efficient development of the technology companies in the area, Dong noted.

A total of 42 listed companies are present in the entrepreneurial area, making it one of the densest concentrations of listed companies in China, according to local news outlet, Changjiang Daily, on Wednesday.

The Yangtze River Economic Belt covers 11 provinces and provincial-level municipalities, accounts for more than 40 percent of the nation's GDP, according to Xinhua News Agency in February.