URUMQI, March 8 -- Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region had 1,911 high-tech enterprises in 2023, spanning fields such as smart agriculture, new energy, and new materials, hitting a record high, local authorities said on Friday.

The number of small and medium-sized scientific and technological enterprises reached 2,256 in Xinjiang in 2023, an increase of 80.2 percent year on year, said the regional science and technology department. It added that the turnover of the region's technology contracts exceeded 7.37 billion yuan (around 1.04 billion U.S. dollars) last year, a year-on-year increase of 130 percent.

In 2024, the region aims to achieve a turnover of technology transactions exceeding 9 billion yuan, an increase of 550 high-tech enterprises, and a total number of over 2,500 small and medium-sized scientific and technological enterprises.