German enterprises help Taicang pave its path to prosperity

In February, German company Multivac, one of the leading global providers of packaging solutions for food, life science and healthcare products, set up its first research and manufacturing base in China in Taicang of eastern Jiangsu province.

The county-level city has attracted more than 300 German companies so far, and they have invested an aggregate of $4.5 billion, producing more than 50 billion yuan ($7.5 billion) industrial output annually, to make it a successful model for Sino-German cooperation, official figures show.

The cooperation laid its roots in 1993, when Kern-Liebers, a leading global maker of highly complex strip and wire parts and assemblies, became the first German company to make a small investment, thereby testing the Taicang market.

Executives of the company were soon impressed by the friendly and efficient government of Taicang as well as the livable environment, and they started to increase their investment. A number of German big names, including Schaeffler and Siemens, came later.

The official figures indicate that it took 14 years for the city to attract the settlement of the first 100 German companies, another six years for the second batch of 100, and just five years for the third batch.

The presence of German companies has attracted and nurtured more than 400 local private companies to provide supporting manufacturing and services, which keep growing with these German companies and upgrading their facilities and management to be smarter, more automatic and digitalized.

Over the years, the city has attached much more importance to luring German companies with fame and influence in the global industry and that are representatives of Industry 4.0, as well as manufacturing leaders of a large enough scale to have an impact on the local industry in Taicang, government officials said.

"We are taking every strategic opportunity arising from the integration of Chinese manufacturing with Industry 4.0 of Germany," said Shen Mi, Party secretary of Taicang.

The German companies in Taicang provided Industry 4.0 samples for the local companies to follow. In return, the local manufacturers provide better support and services to the German company, forming a healthy industrial development environment.

In 2018, the Taicang government's investment in technical improvement rose 3.6 percent year-on-year to meet the rising demand for intelligent manufacturing.