The two-day meeting of mayors whose cities are home to China's 53 hi-tech development zones came to an end here Monday, with a call for further improvement of the investment environment for developing hi-tech zones.

The participants shared the same view that after 10 years of efforts, these hi-tech parks have become the most active part of China's economy.

The workshop, which was hosted by the Ministry of Science and Technology in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, was also held to mark the 10th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping's inscription and the fifth anniversary of President Jiang Zemin's important speech on the development of hi-tech industries in China.

China had set up more than 20,000 hi-tech companies in these hi- tech zones by 2000, and it has planned to increase the output value of the zones from the current 920.9 billion yuan to 3,500 billion yuan by 2005.