An aerial view of Wuxi. [Photo/Wuxi Daily]
Wuxi in East China's Jiangsu province has been following an innovation-driven development strategy over the past 10 years by cultivating innovative businesses, building innovation platforms and attracting innovative resources.
The city ranked 13th in the country in innovation-driven development on the latest list by the Ministry of Science and Technology.
From 2012 to 2021, research and development spending in Wuxi rose from 20 billion yuan ($2.94 billion) to 45 billion yuan, and the transaction value of technologies soared from 5.81 billion yuan to 38.77 billion yuan.
During the same period, 71 technologies in Wuxi received National Science And Technology Awards from the State Council and 75 won China Patent Awards.
As of the end of 2021, Wuxi was home to 4,608 high-tech enterprises and 654 engineering technology research centers at the provincial level or above.
The city has also intensified strategic cooperation with universities and institutes and built 46 research institutions and 1,321 university-enterprises alliances.
In 2021, the output value of high-tech industries in Wuxi exceeded 1 trillion yuan for the first time, reaching 1.0514 trillion yuan and ranking second in Jiangsu. In the first five months of this year, the output value of its high-tech industries increased 9.4 percent year-on-year to 452.306 billion yuan.
By 2025, Wuxi is expected to be home to more than 10,000 high-tech enterprises and have another 8 million square meters of innovation platforms and over 50 research institutions.