Wuxi's high-tech hub boosts export-oriented economy

Since its inception was approved by the State Council in 1992, the Wuxi National Hi-Tech District has insisted on promoting its development via opening-up and boosting the export-oriented economy of Wuxi in East China's Jiangsu province.

The district, which is the city's first national development zone, has optimized investment attraction and implemented industrial transformation and upgrading over the past 30 years, to facilitate its appeal to foreign investors.

It has so far lured more than 1,700 foreign-funded companies. Their annual import and export volume has exceeded $50 billion for four consecutive years. Those figures stood at only $50 million 30 years ago.

In the first three quarters of the year, the district's import and export volume reached $44.9 billion, accounting for 53 percent of the city's total foreign trade, said the commerce bureau of the district. The export volume stood at $26.25 billion, up 22.3 percent year-on-year, of which more than 60 percent was contributed by high-tech products.

The bureau said the increased proportion of high-tech products in exports is a sign that the district's industrial structure has continuously been optimized, and the scientific and technological competitiveness of the products has been enhanced, which is "inseparable from the enterprises' focus on investment in research and development."

Statistics show the R&D investment in the district now accounts for 4.6 percent of its GDP, reaching the world's most advanced level.

Wuxi Pioneer Intelligent Equipment Co, for example, annually uses more than 10 percent of its total sales revenue on research. This year, its R&D expenditure has increased by more than 40 percent in the first three quarters, which helps the company boost its innovation capacity and competitiveness.

Its products have been exported to more than 20 countries and regions such as the United States, Japan, Germany, France, India, and South Korea.

On the premise of ensuring good pandemic prevention, the district has proactively unblocked the trade channels for enterprises. In the first half of the year, it exported medical equipment worth $220,000 to Belgium for the first time using integrated transportation modes by combining expressways and the China-Europe freight trains. The transportation took only 27 days, nearly 30 days shorter than the previous shipping modes of transport.

The district has resumed cargo flights to South Korea, and opened new cargo flights to Osaka, Japan.

The establishment of a comprehensive bonded zone is an important step for the district to pursue a higher level of internationalization. The bonded zone was set up in 2002 as the Wuxi export processing zone, and was upgraded to a national-level zone in 2012.

After 20 years of development, the zone has formed three pillar industries: integrated circuits, electronic information and photoelectric communication. They produce about 14 percent of the world's memory chips, 20 percent of mechanical hard disks, and 15 percent of photoelectric conversion components.

The total operating revenue of the zone hit 160 billion yuan ($22.7 billion) in 2021, ranking it 10th among the 156 comprehensive bonded zones in China.

Since its establishment, the district has driven high-level construction with international standards and services. It has implemented a series of innovative service measures, and attracted a number of foreign enterprises to set up R&D and sales headquarters in the area. A total of 67 Fortune Global 500 companies have invested in 123 projects in the district. Among them, South Korea's SK Hynix has a total investment exceeding $15.5 billion in semiconductor factories, becoming the largest foreign-funded project in Jiangsu.

Atlas Copco decided to locate an industrial compressor R&D and manufacturing headquarters in the district in February, with a total investment of 3 billion yuan.

After completion, the project will become the largest one of its kind except for the group's Belgian headquarters, and is expected to produce 163,000 compressors annually.

Atlas Copco set up shop in the district 28 years ago, starting with one small factory in 1994. Now, Atlas Copco Wuxi has become one of the most profitable foreign enterprises in the district. The number of the company's employees has risen from over 20 to more than 1,200, and the areas of the factories have grown 10-fold.

Focusing on intelligent and green development, the district has cultivated three industrial clusters worth 100 billion yuan each and two industrial clusters worth over 50 billion yuan each during the past three decades. It is home to more than 1,000 national high-tech companies, and ranks first in the city by number of quasi-unicorn and gazelle enterprises.

haonan@chinadaily.com.cn