Innovation has bolstered industrial transformation and upgrading in Yinzhou district, Ningbo.

The district ranked first among all districts nationwide in terms of technological innovation, up from third place last year, according to a report released by institutions such as the Small and Medium Cities Development Strategy Research Institute.

Yinzhou is currently home to 350 high-tech companies, 48 of which were listed as gazelle companies last year.

A gazelle company is a high-tech company founded less than 10 years ago which has seen at least a 20 percent increase in revenue each year over the past four years or earned revenue of at least 50 million yuan ($7.46 million) in the previous year.

Official data shows that the district's expenditure on research and development totaled 4.338 billion yuan from January to November last year, up 18.8 percent year-on-year.

The added value of its high-tech sectors rose 9.1 percent over the same period to 19.072 billion yuan.

Seeing enterprises as the main drivers of innovation, local authorities have formulated a number of incentives to mobilize local companies to ramp up R&D investment.

Yinzhou is now home to three national business incubators and seven national maker-spaces.

As of the end of November last year, the technology transfer contract value in the district soared 53.7 percent year-on-year to 1.88 billion yuan.