The city of Harbin, Heilongjiang province has announced that it will use business start-up incubators in vacant storehouses and factories, or in new sites to do more to promote innovation and entrepreneurships, with 2.9 billion yuan ($453 million) being set aside for these facilities, on about 7-million square meters across the city, during the 2015 - 2017 period.

The city wants to get on the fast track in its industrial transformation and to provide better services for innovators and business start-ups while improving infrastructure and subsidizing construction projects, bases for small businesses, technology incubators, commerce and trade companies, and outsourcing service centers.

Harbin says it will have projects to support micro-to-small-sized businesses by 2017, backed by 115 million yuan for employee training and social security and with preferential tax policies and easier access to funding.