2023 marks the 45th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up. Since the new era, Jiangsu has made every effort to implement General Secretary Xi Jinping 's important speeches on comprehensively deepening reform and opening up so as to have pushed its reform and opening up to a new level at a new historical starting point, and ensured that its high-quality development ranks at the forefront of the country.
CITIC Taifu Special Steel Jiangyin Factory is one of the latest global "lighthouse factories", the most advanced factory in the world". At present, there are 153 lighthouse factories worldwide, with 62 in China, making it the country with the largest number of lighthouse factories. Jiangsu ranks first in the country with 12 lighthouse factories.
The continuous emergence of "lighthouse factories" is a vivid microcosm of Jiangsu’s manufacturing transformation from being big to being strong and its continuous progress in global competition.
Over the past 45 years, Jiangsu has seized numerous opportunities for industrial transformation so as to have continuously built a solid foundation for the real economy.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Jiangsu has accelerated the strengthening, supplementation, and extension of supply chains, promoted intelligent transformation, digital transformation, and networking, and cultivated strategic emerging industries. Jiangsu occupies 10 seats in 45 national-level advanced manufacturing clusters, ranking first in the country. 15% of China's leading technologies are distributed in Jiangsu. 1/5 of the country’s high-tech products exported are manufactured in Jiangsu.
Jiangsu ranks first in the country for eight consecutive years in the integration of information technology and industrialization, and topped the country in the high-quality development index of the manufacturing industry for three consecutive years.
“In recent years, XCMG Group has independently innovated and developed a series of major equipment for open-pit mines, breaking through the technical barriers of foreign brands and enabling us to have the research and development capabilities for this super heavy equipment,” said Yang Xuhui, Assistant to the Director of XCMG Mining Machinery Heavy Mining Vehicle Research and Development Institute.
“Farsheng Hongsheng Group’s cables have been used to manufacture and provide over 70% of the world's ultra long span suspension and cable-stayed bridges. We will continue to accelerate the development and expansion of lightweight, alloying, and intelligent new materials, new construction methods, and new processes,” said Dong Dong, Vice President of Farsheng Hongsheng Group.
The reform and opening up have led to the upgrading of the province’s manufacturing industry, and also accelerated the integration of technological innovation and industry in Jiangsu.
Since its establishment in 2013, Jiangsu Industrial Research Institute has transformed 7000 scientific and technological achievements by incubating over 1200 technology-based enterprises, making it a breeding ground for emerging industries in Jiangsu.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Jiangsu has made unremitting efforts to promote scientific and technological innovation and institutional innovation by introducing a series of policies and regulations to promote scientific and technological innovation. A number of strategic scientific and technological forces, such as Suzhou Laboratory and Purple Mountain Laboratories, have demonstrated growth momentum by tackling a batch of key core technologies every year.
The province’s R&D investment intensity has exceeded 3%, reaching a moderate level of the innovative countries and regions. The province has recorded nearly 55 invention patents owned by 10000 people, twice the national average.
“The reform of the scientific and technological system and mechanism has fully stimulated the innovation enthusiasm of scientific researchers. In the past five years, we have recorded a technology achievement conversion rate of 8.92%, far higher than the national average of 3.9% in universities. The cooperation between industry, academia, and research has generated over 10 billion yuan in economic benefits,” said Wang Lu, Deputy Director of the Natural Science Department of the Science Research Institute of Nanjing University of Technology.
Over the past 45 years of reform and opening up, Jiangsu has continued to deepen its opening-up, and the high-quality joint construction of "the Belt and Road" has yielded fruitful results. Since its establishment four years ago, Jiangsu Free Trade Zone has gathered more than 7700 foreign trade enterprises and recorded 560 billion yuan of import and export.
A large number of reform achievements have gathered surging momentum for the province’s high-quality development. Since 2017, Jiangsu has recorded 12 trillion yuan in its total GDP.
“We have witnessed the rapid development of Jiangsu's economy since we gained the foothold in China. We have established a multinational corporation headquarters here and will also comprehensively increase strategic investment to build and upgrade the entire industry chain value chain,” said Frank Dunberg, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Phoenix Electric Group.
“Our key markets include over 20 countries or regions such as Chile, Romania, Slovakia, and Kazakhstan, with order amounts increasing from less than 20 million yuan ten years ago to approximately 300 million yuan today,” said Chen Jian, Overseas Market Development Specialist at CRRC Qishuyan Institute.
