Benefiting from China's strategy to boost the development of South Jiangsu National Innovation Demonstration Zone, Suzhou Industrial Park has promoted independent brands and encouraged innovative startups in recent years.

The park has ranked first in Jiangsu province for eight consecutive years for science and technology innovation.

Statistics indicated that the production value of high-tech industries at the park reached 58.8 billion yuan ($9.6 billion) in the first quarter of 2016, accounting for 65.6 percent of the park's total production value.

There were 147 newly registered high-tech investment projects at the park in the first quarter of 2016, and 837 million yuan in fixed asset investment was attracted to the park.

Trade volume of technology reached 189 million yuan during the same period, and there were 701 newly licensed patents.

According to SIP's Technology and Information Bureau, the park has been remarkably successful in both attracting talents and boosting three emerging industries.

Sci-tech talents

Attracting and training talents is a core strategy of the park as it looks to upgrade and enhance innovative development among enterprises.

To date, 135 employees at the park have been selected through China's 1,000 Talent Plan, the country's leading professional program and a subprogram of the Recruitment Program of Global Experts; 137 have been awarded the status of Dual Creative Talents of Jiangsu Province, and the education level of talents with a junior college-level education or higher hit 40 percent, ranking the first among all industrial parks around China.

The park started the Leading Technology Talent Project in 2007, which has selected hundreds of talents. The 2015 program saw a number of improvements on previous years and produced the following highlights:

First, the overall quality of the project was improved, and six talents selected through the project won prizes in technology startup contests.

Second, the park is focusing on the undoubted potential of three emerging industries: biological medicine, nanotechnology, and cloud computing, and more than 80 percent of companies in the park are in these three industries.

Third, the park's favorable policies and enterprise climate mean that a number of high-level overseas talents have moved to the park.

The park also made some major amendments to its tech talent project in 2016, which was opened for applications in January. The project review period was shortened from three rounds of reviews to two; and a comprehensive examination database was set up to ensure that the audit procedure is clear.

Emerging industries

SIP has seized the opportunities created by both changes in global industrial trends and the production value of biological medicine, nanotechnology, and the cloud computing industry.

.The application of nanotechnology

The industrial park is becoming a global hotbed of nanotechnology innovation.

At present there are 352 nanotechnology companies in the park, providing 22,100 jobs. The production value of the industry reached 8.5 billion yuan in the first quarter of 2016, increasing 30 percent compared with last year.

The park attracted 500 million yuan of investment in nanotechnology, increasing 11 percent during the first quarter this year.

The innovation ability of the park's nanotechnology companies also improved significantly.

To date, park companies have applied for a total of 3,610 patents.

.Biological medicine industry

The park has about 700 biological medicine companies, including some with core proprietary intellectual property rights and strong market competitiveness.

The production value of the biological medicine industry in the park reached 11.7 billion yuan during the first quarter, increasing 25 percent compared with last year. In total, 47 biological medicine experts were selected into China's Recruitment Program of Global Experts.

Meanwhile, more companies achieved breakthroughs in developing innovative products: 29 different medicines have been issued new drug clinical licenses.

The park now also owns 31 licenses for medical device production, and 28 companies own medical equipment product registration permits.

Biological medicine product incubators have also been established in the park.

DAAN incubator, established by DAAN Gene Co Ltd opened in the park on March 26, and aims to attract outstanding biological medicine enterprises and startup projects and provide them with startup guidance and a compete incubation and investment service.

The park has also opened centers for hosting cooperation forums, including Lengquangang Asian Conference Center, which opened in April 2010.

Roughly 70 international high-end academic conferences have been held at the center, attracting more than 11,000 scientists from more than 60 countries and regions.

.Cloud computing industry

SIP has attracted 600 companies from the cloud computing and big data industries, with over 50,000 employees.

The production value reached 8.8 billion yuan in the first quarter this year, increasing 38.8 percent compared with last year.

SIP maps out growth strategy

Suzhou Industrial Park will continue to encourage the development of innovative industries as it strives to become a world-class high-tech industrial park.

To achieve this aim, the park will work to establish an open innovation system; look to shorten the time between the academic research stage and the production of usable technology; improve the innovation startup ecosphere, and enhance cooperation with leading institutions, such as Oxford University Suzhou Research Center, Sino-Finland Nanotechnology Innovation Center, Netherlands High-tech Enterprises China Center and Sino-German Nanotechnology Device Research Center.

The park will aim to maintain the current annual GDP increase of 30 percent in the three emerging industries, and create over 300 billion yuan of production value by the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20).

The park will also continue to attract innovative talents and encourage colleges, research institutions and domestic and international enterprises to set up research centers in the industrial park.

The park will continue to encourage innovation among companies, and there are plans to build new incubators covering an area of more than 2 million square meters; attract more than 5,000 innovative companies; lure more than 50,000 talents holding at least a master's degree, and attract more than 200 talents selected into China's Recruitment Program of Global Experts.

Finally, the park will continue to ofer top-notch services to enterprises and will upgrade its financial services information system and technology data center.

[email protected]