Wuxi welcomes homebound elites

Wuxi convened a talkfest in grand style where Wuxi-born big names could celebrate their hometown's great achievements over the past decades as well as discuss the city's development on May 21 as a part of the Jiangsu Development Summit.

More than 200 Wuxi native tycoons, cultural celebrities, and government officials, as well as those working and investing in the city, took part in the talkfest, including Henry Tang, chairman of the Federation of HK Jiangsu Community Organizations, Larry Yung Chi-kin, chairman of Yung's Enterprise Holdings Ltd, Xu Zhihong, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and former president of Peking University, Gu Yifan, chairman of the Blue Ocean Network, Sun Shangwu, deputy editor-in-chief of China Daily, and Zhou Haijiang, CEO of Hodo Group.

Li Xiaomin, Party secretary of Wuxi, delivers a speech at the talkfest held on May 21. [Photo by Lu Yi/wxrb.com]

"It is a great pleasure to join you all today in Wuxi to muse over memories of the past, get acquainted with the city's new image and strive for future cooperation and development," said Li Xiaomin, Party secretary of Wuxi.

Li detailed Wuxi's economic and social development for the distinguished guests.

"Wuxi's economy has maintained sustained and rapid development and its overall strength ranks in the forefront in Jiangsu province. The city obtained a three percent year-on-year increase of industrial output and a 10 percent year-on-year increase in industrial investments for 2016. The output value of Wuxi's hi-tech industries was over 20 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of two percent.

The city also realized 31.4 patents per annum for each 10,000 people, with science and technology contributions to economic growth jumping up to 63 percent.

Thirteen Wuxi-based enterprises entered China's Top 500 companies last year, including 22 selected in the manufacturing category. The city has also added 17 new listed companies in the foreign market, making the total number 112. Incoming overseas capital reached $3.4 billion in 2016, 60 percent of which is from manufacturing industries."

Li hoped that the participants will visit Wuxi frequently, explore more areas to cooperate in with local enterprises and help to boost the city's international profile.