HIGH-QUALITY APPROACH PRODUCING BENCHMARK RESULTS IN XINWU

Birthplace of Wu culture carries on tradition of innovation, pragmatism

Xinwu district in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, has made headway in its pursuit of high-quality development.

A pearl among local economies around Taihu Lake at the heart of the Yangtze River Delta, Xinwu has developed in concert with surrounding major cities including Shanghai, Nanjing and Suzhou, and has played an active role in the regional integrated development of the delta.

As the birthplace of the Wu culture, the district has a history that can be traced back 3,200 years.

At the end of the 11th century BC, prince Taibo together with one of his brothers went to Meili, or today's Meicun town in Xinwu district, and founded the Wu stale, developing the economy and culture to the south of the Yangtze River.

Thus Taibo was named the architect of the Wu culture. For the following thousands of years, the Wu culture, which values morality, literature, pragmatism and innovation and has been passed down by generations, has brought prosperity to the region.

The 220-square-kilometer district has a permanent population of some 570,700, who live in six subdistricts.

Xinwu, also known as the Wuxi National Hi-Tech District, has established a reputation for its sound industrial structure and robust economic growth.

Its GDP stood at 184.55 billion yuan ($27.53 billion) in 2019, up 6.3 percent year-on-year. The district's paid-in foreign capital reached $1.32 billion last year and foreign trade volume hit $50.57 billion, accounting for 54.4 percent of Wind's total.

Industrial structure

Behind the growth momentum is a modern industry development system, which covers the sectors of the internet of things, advanced equipment manufacturing, clean energy and new energy vehicles, life science and technology, artificial intelligence, the modern service industry and emerging industries.

The district has developed into an industrial hub for new-generation information technology, with pillar sectors of the IoT and high-performance integrated circuits, supported by electronic information.

Businesses and researchers in Xinwu have developed a number of core technologies in the IoT industry and contributed to the formulation of industry standards, enabling a growing global influence and putting the district at the forefront of the country.

The district boasts a leading photovoltaic industrial cluster in China, with a complete industrial chain from research and development, product manufacturing, equipment supply, inspection and testing, and power plant installation to investment services. It aims to build itself into an automotive battery center in Kast China that integrates R&D, production and testing.

Xinwu ranked among the 2019 China Top 20 Biomedicine Industrial Parks in terms of comprehensive competitiveness and the Top 10 Competitive Parks honored by the National Center for Biotechnology Development, affiliated with the Ministry of Science and Technology, which provides a glimpse into its strengths in the life science and technology industry.

The district's advanced equipment manufacturing industry features a complete range of products and a domestically leading production capacity. It is considered a globally advanced manufacturing center.

The local AI industry focuses on developing the intelligent product portfolio, boosting R&D and production of key devices and components and thus creating an ecosystem of intelligent industries.

The modern service industry in the district puts emphasis on information services such as IT, science and technology, finance, commerce, cultural creativity and innovation, logistics, leisure tourism and healthcare.

Xinwu has also pinned hopes on emerging industries, including 5G, AI, graphene, additive manufacturing and other sectors to gain an edge in industrial development in the future.

Currently, the district is home to more than 26,000 businesses, including 1,674 foreign-funded companies, 20 companies publicly traded on the main boards in Chinese and overseas capital markets and 77 listed enterprises in the over-the-counter market.

Foreign inbound capital is mainly from Japan, South Korea, the United States and Europe. Seventy-one Fortune 500 companies have invested in 119 projects in the district.

There are 26 multinational headquarters, including three comprehensive headquarters, four regional headquarters, two focused on investment, two on marketing, and two on R&D and finance.

Innovation strengths

Xinwu is flexing its technological muscle, with the output value of its high-tech industry accounting for 66 percent of Wuxi's total and 3.76 percent of its GDP is spent on R&D, both ranking top among the city's districts.

The sectors of IoT, IC, software, big data, cloud computing and AI have all reported high growth in revenue in recent years.

To date, the district is home to 837 small and medium-sized businesses recognized as national-level tech-driven enterprises and 620 high-tech companies.

At the same time, 14 business incubators, three tech-startup accelerators, 21 R&D institutions and 21 national research centers are helping to improve local innovation capacities.

Organizations and individuals in the district have been granted 689,000 patents, enabling the invention patent ownership per 10,000 people to reach 126.

Such innovation strength relies on a pool of 275,000 high-level professionals in the district.

Of them, experts and specialists have started more than 770 businesses, founding startup teams of over 5,000 people. The district has brought in and fostered 115 national-level experts, 16 professionals recruited in the Innovative Talents Promotion Plan of the Ministry of Science and Technology, 135 provincial-level experts, 17 teams and 65 PhD holders.

Wuxi National Hi-Tech District has won four national honors for attracting and fostering professionals.

Key research facilities in the district include eight national science and technology incubators, five national mass innovation spaces, two national enterprise technology centers, a national engineering technology research center, and the Wuxi High-Tech Entrepreneurship Service Center have been granted the status as the National Public Service Platform.

In addition, a widespread transportation network, which covers waterways, land, air and rail, adds the appeal of the district to investors.

Sunan Shuofang International Airport has launched more than 40 direct flights to Japan, Singapore, South Korea, as well as China's Hong Kong, Macao and Taipei among other cities.

The Shanghai-Nanjing high-speed railway has three stations in Wuxi, one of them located in Wuxi National Hi-Tech District. It takes just 30 minutes to travel to Shanghai and 4.5 hours to Beijing.

Wuxi plans to build eight light rail lines, half of them set to run through the high-tech district.