Industrial city with long history hoping to develop high-tech as it looks to the future

Wuxi, a city in Jiangsu province that has thrived on traditional manufacturing industries for decades, is looking to upgrade its industrial structure for more sustainable growth, said the city's top leader.

"In the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), Wuxi's development will focus on the information, environmental, service and high-tech industries," said Li Xiaomin, top leader of Wuxi.

The city, which is located at the point where Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces meet, has been a transportation hub since ancient times. The 2000-year-old Beijing-Hangzhou Canal that connected the north of the country to the food-rich southern regions flowed past the city and it was, in more recent times, home to many of the first modern enterprises in China.

Wuxi has been at the forefront of China's reform and opening-up initiative thanks to the fast growth of its small township enterprises since the 1980s. With a population of 6.47 million, Wuxi ranked 13th in GDP in 2015 among cities on the Chinese mainland. Its GDP was 851.8 billion yuan ($130.8 billion).

But, with the city facing the same challenges that the Chinese economy faces, with rising labor costs, pollution concerns and a desire to see more innovation and high technology, Li said it is time to shift the emphasis.

"Traditional manufacturing industries, such as equipment manufacturing, textiles, electronic products and metallurgy, which have been the backbone of Wuxi's economy, must incorporate intelligent information technology to enhance their competitiveness," said Li.

The city has implemented a campaign to "replace human labor with mechanization" and wants to build intelligent factories, digital workshops and undertake robot research and development.

"In terms of high-end industries, we have prioritized seven industries as key areas for growth and they are information, manufacturing, environmental, biomedicine, new energy, new materials and garment making. Only by moving up along the value chain can we achieve more efficient growth," said Li.

In May, Samsung SDI signed a memorandum with the Wuxi government to invest $180 million in the city and build a diffuser plant covering an area of 30 to 40 million square meters. The plant is expected to be put into operation by the end of this year.

In the first half of 2015, the total output of the electronic products industry in the city stood at 89.9 billion yuan, an increase of 5.4 percent on the first half of 2014.

Wuxi Research Institute, a research center built in collaboration with Huazhong University of Science and Technology, has been doing research in areas such as photoelectricity, new material and new energy. It has more than 50 projects contracted by enterprises, creating total value of more than 500 million yuan.

Li said that service has yet to become an integral part of Wuxi's traditional industries. Therefore, the modern service industry has become another focal point of the city's economic blueprint.

"In the future, we must transform the enterprises from equipment suppliers to complete solution providers. Services for industries, such as third-party logistics, e-commerce and information, should be further developed. Services for people's livelihood, such as leisure and travel, health, culture and education, should target more specific customers," he said.

yangziman@chinadaily.com.cn