Taizhou city experiences leapfrog development in past decade

A splendid view of Taizhou Sports Park, a new landmark in the city. [Photo/WeChat ID: tzfabu]

Taizhou city in East China's Jiangsu province is widely said to have experienced a golden period of development in the past decade.

Over the period, its economy has seen an exponential rise in annual GDP which has surpassed 600 billion yuan ($83 billion) and its economic aggregate has jumped 16 places among all the cities in China in the last 10 years. Furthermore, the output value of its pharmaceutical industry and its completion rate for building ships have both ranked first among China's prefecture-level cities.

"The pharmaceutical industry is Taizhou's pillar industry and landmark industry, whose scale accounts for about 25 percent of Jiangsu's total pharmaceutical industry scale," said Shi Kaizhong, vice-director of the city's development and reform commission.

"Its capacity for Chinese patent medicine processing and vaccine production also ranks top in the country," Shi added.

A bird's-eye view of standardized workshops in the Taizhou Medical High-tech Zone. [Photo/WeChat ID: tzfabu]

The Taizhou Medical High-tech Zone leads the way for the city's pharmaceutical industry. It is home to more than 1,000 pharma enterprises from all over the world, over 100 pharma research and development institutions and more than 4,300 top-flight talent in the field of biomedicines. They have all helped it to develop industrial clusters for vaccines, diagnostic reagents and biological medicine.

The zone last year contributed 18.4 percent to the city's GDP and generated 28.7 percent of the total output value of industrial enterprises above a designated size, which are companies with annual revenue of 20 million yuan or more.

The city has committed to improving its basic public services and was honored as "China's happiest city" in 2020-2022. In recent years, it has invested a great deal in improving the quality of life and standard of living of its residents. In 2021, the per capita disposable income of the city was 43,777 yuan, an increase of 116.1 percent from the level in 2012.

A panorama of the countryside in Taizhou. [Photo/WeChat ID: tzfabu]

The city also prioritized developing its rural areas. By 2021, the urbanization rate of permanent residents reached 68.64 percent, increasing by 10.7 percent from the level in 2012. The strategy for rural revitalization has also been thoroughly implemented over the decade – with 36 villages designated as a characteristic village by Jiangsu province. Moreover, agricultural industries and villages development have over the period consistently maintained a prosperous trend.