Industrial park takes lead in tech innovation

Since its foundation in 1994, Suzhou Industrial Park has grown into a model of scientific and technological development, thanks to the constant efforts to support opening-up and the promotion of emerging industries.

Official statistics show the high-tech industry in the park created output value of 325.13 billion yuan ($46.71 billion) in 2018, leading all competitors in the city. As of the end of 2018, there were 1,046 national-level high-tech enterprises in the park.

SIP is a cooperation project between Chinese and Singaporean governments, and is China's largest project jointly developed with a foreign country that adheres to the principles of opening-up and innovation, according to local officials.

The park has played a vital role in attracting foreign investment to Suzhou while facilitating domestic companies' exploration of overseas markets, they added.

Some 15 years ago, SIP began to promote the transformation of the high-tech industry, gradually increasing investment.

To date, the park has attracted 12 national-level scientific research institutions, and research bases of 29 universities from home and abroad.

A special industrial system has been set up to foster the development of high-end equipment manufacturing, new-generation information technology, biomedicine, nanotechnology and artificial intelligence.

In order to boost growth of AI companies, the administrative committee of SIP has issued an array of guidelines since 2017, covering technology transformation and protection of intellectual property and laying a good foundation for industrial development, said local officials.

Moreover, the park has been committed to improving AI infrastructure.

The last project completed in December was the Suzhou Super Computing Center. The nonprofit center not only provides support for enterprise research on AI applications, but also relieves financial pressure, said Gu Zonggen, chairman of the center.

In May, technology company iFlytek founded the iFlytek Suzhou Research Institute in the AI Industry Park of the SIP.

With five R&D departments, the institute focuses on intelligent vision, natural language understanding and processing, and intelligent robots.

Liu Qingfeng, chairman of iFlytek, said: "The SIP, with its favorable innovative climate and business environment, has become the key area for our AI business.

"We will invest more resources and capital into the park, accelerating the transformation of advanced AI technologies to applications."

zhanglinwan@chinadaily.com.cn