China's 169 national high-tech zones are playing a leading role in work resumption as the coronavirus epidemic wanes in the country, with 79 percent of their enterprises having resumed production, an official with the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) said Friday.

Among the total, 94.2 percent of enterprises with an annual revenue of over 20 million yuan had resumed work as of April 1, said Bao Xianhua, director of the research commercialization and regional innovation department of the ministry at a press conference.

A total of 35 national high-tech zones have seen all of their enterprises resume production, Bao said.

Thanks to decades of persistent efforts, China has cultivated the national high-tech zones into innovation and talent highlands of economic development.

During the COVID-19 outbreak, the ministry has been paying close attention to the epidemic prevention and control as well as work resumption of the high-tech zones across the country.

It opened an information sharing service platform, on which more than 300 policies were issued to help guide the enterprises to restart work according to their different conditions.

The ministry also published more than 540 new technologies and achievements to help the high-tech zones prevent and control the virus while resuming production.

Thanks to their early return to work, companies from the high-tech zones have been pioneering in COVID-19-related technology development missions, accounting for two-thirds of the country's total enterprises engaged in emergency research tasks.

Beijing's Zhongguancun, the first national high-tech industrial development zone, has also shown its vitality in sci-tech innovation in the fight against the epidemic.

To date, more than 200 enterprises in Zhongguancun have participated in the research and development of COVID-19 detection reagents, vaccines and medicines, according to Zhai Lixin, director of the management committee of Zhongguancun.

Companies in the zone have also utilized their advantages in the IT and AI sectors by developing AI diagnosis and treatment systems, smart hospital systems, as well as sterilizing and delivery robots.

Despite the impact of the epidemic, the IT industry of Zhongguancun realized a 12.5-percent year-on-year increase in January and February.

"High-tech enterprises in the zone have provided strong support for the anti-epidemic fight, work resumption and online economy nationwide," said Zhai.

China has initiated a special project to boost the economy by rejuvenating enterprises with science and technology, said Zhang Xiaoyuan, director of the resource allocation and management department of the ministry.

The project will mainly support technological innovation projects, especially those with quick returns and a direct driving effect on the resumption of production, Zhang said.

About 3,000 enterprises, mostly micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, will benefit from the project to work with backbone enterprises, research institutions and universities on commercializing scientific research achievements.