The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) will join hands with the Shenzhen Municipal Government to set up a new research institute in the city, as part of a quest for technologies to feed the city's soaring number of high-tech firms.

The Shenzhen Advanced Technology Research Institute will comprise more than 500 researchers from the CAS, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and other institutions, the Daily Sunshine said yesterday.

The report did not indicate when the Shenzhen institute would open but said it had signed a deal with the Nanshan Medical Equipment Industrial Park on April 26 for premises there.

The Shenzhen institute will be one of the five new research institutes to be jointly established by the CAS and the governments of five cities by 2010 to bolster the country's scientific creativity, especially in the high-tech sector.

The four other institutes will be located in Yantai, Qingdao, Suzhou and Xiamen. Together with the Shenzhen institute, they will mainly cover coastal sustainable development, bioenergy, nanoscience, urban environment and other advanced technologies.

The high-tech output of Shenzhen has been growing almost 50 percent annually on average since 1992.

Editor: Yan