In 1992, Suzhou New District was approved by the State Council as one of the first batch of national high-tech industrial development zones. The year 2012 witnessed a merge of SND and Huqiu District, and an integrated administrative mechanism governing the two districts was adopted accordingly. The merged district has an administrative area of 332 square kilometers with a population of 970, 000. So far SND has nurtured a number of development sections, such as the Xushuguan National Economic and Technological Development Zone, Suzhou Science and Technology Town, Suzhou West Ecotourism Resort, Shishan Business Innovation Zone and the SND Integrated Free Trade Zone. Quite a number of specialized parks have been set up, including China Suzhou Innovation Park, Jiangsu Medpark, the Park of Listed Companies Headquarters, SND Software Park, and the Life and Health Town. Furthermore, SND has housed some one hundred specialized parks, among which are Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tsinghua (Suzhou) Research Institute for Environmental, China Mobile (Suzhou) Research and Development Centre, the Patent Examination Cooperation Jiangsu Centre of the CNIPA Patent Office, Suzhou Industrial Base of Electroacoustics under Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Suzhou Power and Environment Energy Research Institute. In 2020, the district achieved annual regional GDP of 144.6 billion yuan, a gross industrial output value of 328 billion yuan and the public budget income of 17.5 billion yuan.
SND features highly positive drive for innovation, and over 1, 000 innovation-oriented enterprises were attracted to settle down here in 2020. In the same year, 721 businesses were approved as provincial-level private sci-tech enterprises, which ranked first within Suzhou. The increase in the number of national new and high-tech enterprises reached 280, ranking second in the city. Twelve entities became municipal-level incubated unicorn enterprises, which also ranked second within the city of Suzhou. SND initiated the new talent policy with a focus on building itself into “a land of main chance for entrepreneurs and a paradise for innovators”. The newly increased leading scientists ventures reached 65. As a result, SND has been recognized as a pioneer for its efforts spared in the areas of science and technology and talent introduction for three consecutive years. The district has successfully been selected as one of the first piloting entities nationwide for the point system of state new and high-tech enterprises. The economic growth in SND is characteristic of an upward steadiness.
Intensified efforts have been spent to introduce investment and businesses. In 2020, SND homed 144 new foreign-invested projects. In the same year, the actual use of foreign investment reached 500 million USD. Enterprises involved Japanese investment accounted for over 600. Domestic registered investment amounted to 67.6 billion yuan. The construction of key projects was quickened. The industrial investment grew by 20.4%. The services offered to enterprises were constantly optimized, and a related service centre was established, which could increase the speed of administrative approval by 80%. The number of newly registered market entities reached over 20 thousand, realizing an increase by 94.3%. The transformation of industries has been accelerated as well.
SND also saw the establishment of Suzhou Medical Device Industrial Development Company, the startup of the Suzhou Innovation Centre for Integrated Circuits Industry, the set-up of the Sub-Funds Headquarters of Niuerli Holding Co., Ltd. with the scale of 10 billion yuan. The district worked with Tencent to build the first digital industrial base in the Yangtze River Delta region. The growth in output value of biomedicine and integrated circuits industries here maintained an over 30% rise. The output value achieved by emerging industries took up 62.8% of the total output value of the industrial companies with annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan within the city, which ranked first in Suzhou. SND has been approved to be one of the first pilot zones of opening, sharing and application of regional big data, one of provincial-level “Internet + Advanced Manufacturing” bases and one of the first national demonstration bases of green industries.
Urban construction of SND presents new highlights as well, from the set-up of Shishan Business Innovation Zone, the integrated development of Xushuguan area, the quickened growth of Shishan Cultural Square, and the grand opening of the New Forest World at Suzhou Amusement Park to the appearance of such internet-famous sites as Huanhai Street and Xiupin Street. Thus SND has been approved to be a provincial tourism demonstration zone. In the meantime, people’s livelihood and welfare in SND have been steadily upgraded. After the College Entrance Examination, the undergraduate enrollment rate is up to 96.5%. The number of high scorers, the top scorer and highly segmented candidates in the senior high school entrance examination all rank first in Suzhou. Furthermore, SND won the title of “National Civilized City” with distinction due to its steadily improved water and air quality, stable performance of safety in production and significant decreases in corresponding major indicators.
The Party building efforts have been fully enhanced. The SND Party Affairs Committee keeps updating its delivery and learning efforts of General Secretary of the CPC Xi Jinping’s latest speeches and instructions. The Committee closely learns and implements the main points of the 19th National Congress of the CPC and the speech delivered by Secretary Xi during his inspection of Jiangsu. As a result, the Committee has launched the “Photo Exhibition on the 30th Anniversary of Construction and Development”, helped build SND Museum of Development and Practice, and organized 10 thousand party members to serve local communities. The SND spirit featuring unity, endeavor, solid work and pioneering spirit has been brought into full play, which endows the whole district an atmosphere of “striving jointly for excellence”.
In the coming days, SND will seize the opportunities presented by the new era, further implement the new development philosophy, quicken the construction of new development pattern, and highlight new development strengths to achieve greater increase in its economic capacity, promote greater breakthrough in its high-quality development and realize greater progress in people’s livelihood and welfare.
