New Industries Remaking China's Ancient Scenic City

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, November 01, 2002

New Industries Remaking China's Ancient Scenic City

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Suzhou, this prestigious scenic city in eastern Jiangsu province is reclaiming its historic status as the leader of China's economic development, thanks to the rapid growth of its new industries over the past decade.

With the fast development of electronic information, electro-mechanical integration, new household appliances, chemicals and petrochemicals, new materials and automobiles and vehicle parts manufacturing, Suzhou reported a gross domestic product of 176 billion yuan (21.28 billion US dollars) and a revenue of 20.9 billion yuan (2.5 billion US dollars) in 2001, ranking sixth and seventh respectively among the major Chinese cities.

According to historical records, Suzhou, a renowned tourist city, topped other cities in China in term of economic development for over 800 years between the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) and early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), especially in farm produce, silk products, garments, and arts and handicrafts.

At that time, Suzhou and Hangzhou, the capital city of the neighboring Zhejiang province, were both widely reputed among the people across China as a "paradise on earth" for their wonderful scenery and booming economies.

Suzhou's economy, nevertheless, had been declining gradually for one and a half century despite its reputation as a "land teaming in fish and rice" (a land of plenty) and a noted "tourist city in a watery region" until the early 1980s. For some 150 years, the people in Suzhou have long aspired to resume the city's former glory and prosperity.

With the implementation of China's policy of reform and opening to the outside world in the late 1970s, Suzhou has witnessed rapid economic growth, especially among the rising township enterprises and household electric appliances manufacturers, but its economic status remained on the whole unchanged. The turning point in the city's economic growth came in 1992 when it set aside a number of areas for economic development zones and adopted policies to attract investment from overseas.

At present, the city has more than 5,000 overseas-funded firms, which have utilize over 26 billion US dollars in overseas funds.

Suzhou now boasts five state-level and 11 provincial-level development zones, covering a combined area of 190 sq km. According to the city's statistics bureau, 70 percent of the city's overseas-funded enterprises and those located in the development zones are engaged in high-tech industries such as electronic information, electro-mechanical integration, new-type household electric appliances, chemicals and petro-chemicals, new materials, and automobiles and parts manufacturing.

The total sales income from these new and high-tech businesses reached 118.4 billion yuan (14.3 billion US dollars) for 2001. These industries also accounted for some 50 percent of the city's total fixed assets investment, and half of the industrial goods exports and 30 percent of the city's total revenue last year. About 500,000 people are working in these fields.

At present, Suzhou's output of computer mice makes up 65 percent of the world market, and the city takes a major share of the world market in computer monitors, scanners, motherboards and lap-tops.

At the same time, the city also exports Philips color television sets, Samsung refrigerators and microwave ovens, Nokia mobile phones, AMD CPU chips and Fujitsu digital cameras worldwide.

Only Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Tianjin are stronger in terms of overall economic strength.

City Mayor Yang Weize said proudly, "The new industries have enabled Suzhou to stage a comeback in a matter of only 10 years. That is attributed to the power of advanced productivity."

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