SUZHOU CONTINUES TO MAKE ECONOMIC STRIDES WITH REFORM & OPENING-UP

Jiangsu province city seeks to seize opportunities on the back of key national strategies

Suzhou, in East China's Jiangsu province, is ramping up efforts to expand its reform and opening-up in a bid to promote comprehensive development of the city's economy, according to local officials.

Lan Shaomin, Party secretary of Suzhou, described the city as being an "excellent student" ever since China's reform and opening-up were first implemented in 1978. "Suzhou has achieved rapid development and created an economic miracle during the implementation of the policies," Lan said.

Suzhou is the strongest prefecture-level city in terms of economy nationwide, and currently ranks as the seventh most economically powerful city in China.

Statistics from the Suzhou bureau of commerce show that the city generated more than 2 trillion yuan ($287.35 billion) in imports and exports in the first 11 months of 2019, with about 430 billion yuan contributed by countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative. Newly registered foreign investment reached nearly $10 billion, up 0.7 percent over the same period last year, and the actual use of foreign capital grew by 4.3 percent to surpass $4.5 billion.

Behind the figures is the recognition of and confidence in Suzhou's efforts to build an open and innovative economy with some 17,000 foreign-funded enterprises from more than 120 countries and regions, according to the city government.

Lan said the best choice for Suzhou is to seize the major opportunities brought by multiple national strategies such as the BRI, the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the integration of the Yangtze River Delta region, in a bid to realize higher-level opening-up via further innovation, industrial transformation, effective investment, an optimized business environment and improved city functions.

One initiative is to promote scientific and technological innovation with wider openness. "We should actively integrate with the global innovation network and attract and gather more high-end innovative resources worldwide, to accelerate the construction of a global innovation hub," Lan said.

Centering on new-generation display technology, biomedicine, new medical devices, new energy and other industries, Suzhou is building 10 advanced manufacturing clusters each with a projected output value of more than 100 billion yuan.

Setting up projects in Suzhou Industrial Park in 2016, Ascentage Pharma, a leading clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, is in the process of building its global headquarters, a research and development center and an industrial base in line with international standards that cover a total area of 6.3 hectares.

"We are attracted by the park for two reasons: one is the long-term policy support for the biopharmaceutical industry, which is very important because the characteristics of the industry is time consuming and high risk; the other is that the park has the country's best capital market and adequate human resources," said Yang Dajun, chairman and CEO of Ascentage Pharma.

Wu Qingwen, secretary of the park's Party working committee, said the park is researching the formulation of policies and opinions to further promote the development of the biopharmaceutical industry. "We are committed to building a new global benchmark for the industry and improving the R&D and industrialization of new drugs, high-end medical devices and key components, biotechnologies and emerging therapies," he said.

Suzhou National Hi-Tech District has also laid a solid foundation for innovation in recent years by introducing some 100 academies and institutions including the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, and Tsinghua Research Institute for Environmental Innovation (Suzhou). It has also incubated more than 500 national high-tech companies.

Moreover, Suzhou has taken measures to reshape and upgrade its industrial structure. "It is not simply about cutting, but about how to add something new that is of high quality," Lan said. The city in recent years has cut several low value-added segments and witnessed huge progress in developing the emerging sectors of biomedicine, nanotechnology, next-generation communications and artificial intelligence. Improving the business environment is another focus of the city in furthering its opening-up.

Without many traditional industrial advantages, Suzhou has been recognized by investors due to its efficient and considerate services provided to businesspeople, Lan said. "We will draw on advanced international experience, pay more attention to customer experience and improve government services in all aspects," he added.

Suzhou's high-quality investment and development environment has won wide acclaim from the international community. So far, the city has been awarded by the World Bank as a gold medal city of China's investment environment, and also selected as one of the most attractive Chinese cities in the eyes of foreign talents for eight consecutive years.